Robert Besson. Photo by Film Reference Library, Toronto.

Playing at Pacific Cinematheque through the month of April is a Robert Bresson retrospective. Bresson was a French director whose works influenced the French New Wave and contemporary directors, as well as cinema closer to home, in Quebec.

“France has played such a vital role in the evolution of cinema since its very inception, that to map out its influence on film in Canada in any kind of comprehensive way is difficult,” says Peter Lester, a post-doctoral teaching fellow with UBC’s Film Studies program.

“As far as English Canadian cinema, the direct influence is perhaps a little less easily traceable … but generally speaking, the French influence is typically more pronounced within the context of Quebecois cinema.”

David Hauka, a film professor at Capilano University agrees.

“The influence of France is so deeply engrained in Canadian cinema and culture, that it is genetic,” he says. “Unlike other English-dominant nations, Canada has been engaged in French history and culture so much so that it is part of the nation’s collective unconscious. From Jutra to Falardeau, the bar has been set in Canada for Canadian stories, not by American filmmakers, but by Quebec filmmakers.”

Given the historical and linguistic connections between Quebec and France, the cultural influence France has on Quebec cinema is not surprising.

“Since at least the 1950s and 60s there has been a rather close crossover between the cinema of France and that of Quebec,” says Lester. “Two titans of Quebec cinema – Claude Jutra and Michel Brault – were famously associated with the origins of two of the post-war period’s most influential cinematic developments: The French New Wave and the documentary tradition that has become known as cinéma vérité.”

Bresson's film: Mouchette

Lester explains that the influence of the French New Wave on Quebecois cinema and the subsequent success of Quebecois films The Decline of the American Empire and Mon Oncle Antoine in France show that it is not just simply French cinema influencing Canadian cinema, but that the two have a “symbiotic” relationship. But he cautions that the direction of Quebecois cinema has changed in recent years.

“This recent crop of films has demonstrated quite a pronounced interest in the international, global community with narratives, characters and influences reaching well beyond the geographic and cultural confines of Quebec and Canada,” says Lester. “This would include the Middle East, Africa and certainly France. Much of Café de Flore, for instance, occurs in France and stars Vanessa Paradis. Monsieur Lazar of course stars the Algerian-French performer Fellag.”

Ernest Mathijs, a professor with the UBC Film Studies program says that Vancouver, also known as “Hollywood North,” is more location-oriented and “an antithesis to the kind of influence French cinema has on Canadian film.”

Bresson's film: Four Nights of a Dreamer

The status of Vancouver as a service industry to Hollywood only underscores the weak and malleable identity of Canadian cinema. Naming some famous film directors from English Canada can be a bit difficult and the like of David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, and Guy Maddin come to mind. But even then, Cronenberg may be the only one who is well-known in mainstream cinema.

The maturation of Quebecois cinema then serves as a good antidote to Hollywood’s influence and a model to English Canadian cinema on forging its own distinct identity.

“Quebecois cinema expresses the dynamic that is Canada. It expresses the need for identity and history at the same time as it is being redefined by history. This is why Quebecois cinema is so relevant and successful,” explains Hauka.

For more information, please visit: www.cinematheque.bc.ca/robert-bresson

Bresson's film: A Man Escaped