Joyeux Noël!

fig. a: Aéroport Montréal-Dorval, 1968

Earlier tonight we were told the government of Quebec predicts a “steep exponential rise” in the number of COVID-19 cases as the Omicron variant sweeps the province. In fact, the provincial case count is expected to surpass 9,000 tomorrow, up from about 1,000 just a couple of weeks ago. As a result, tighter restrictions will come into effect not tomorrow, not on Christmas Eve, and not on Christmas Day, but on Boxing Day.

So, sure—live it up! Go ahead and have a joyeux Noël, but, please, play it safe, people. COVID-19 cases have literally been swirling all around us these last few days.

And if it makes you feel better, and helps to keep you from going stir-crazy, let your mind wander to a time when airports were sites of adventure and intrigue (and nurseries!), when pay phones were commonplace (and people used them to place phone calls!!), and when internationally renowned filmmakers allowed themselves to rub elbows with portly old bearded men in hideous red & white outfits.

Of course, if the thought of any of the above—Montréal-Dorval in 1968/pay phones/Godard/Santa/Christmas—just triggers you, forget about it. I get it. 2021 has been tough enough already.

aj

[Santa Claus; Jean-Luc Godard; Dorval International Airport]

Le Chat dans le sac (1964)

Le Chat dans le sac (1964), dir. Groulx—prod. ONF

[anti-colonialism; post-colonialism; anti-imperialism; Black Lives Matter; The Wretched of the Earth; Frantz Fanon; Louis E. Lomax; atrocities; genocide; Godardian; cinephilia; New Wave; Montreal; movie theatres; Gilles Groulx]

Watch this film here with English subtitles.

Learn more about its beautiful soundtrack by John Coltrane and the collaboration with Groulx that inspired it here.

Circa 1964, the political and geopolitical conflicts that “Claude” concerned himself with included the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Revolution, anti-colonial and postcolonial struggles in Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, and torture and other atrocities in North Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond. If this film was made today, about a similar character, of a similar age, with similar concerns, it seems likely that “Claude” would be outraged with the injustices and horrors being waged against the Palestinian people over and over and over again, for decades, and with increasingly devastating results. At least, one would hope so.

It seems certain that “Claude” would have followed the numerous instances of anti-black and anti-POC police brutality, abuse, and murder over the last year (and for too many years leading up to 2020) with considerable alarm. It seems certain that his wall of clippings would have included images of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake, Rayshard Brooks, Ma’Khia Bryant, and others, including many closer to home. As it stands, his collection of current events included an image of an act of police brutality perpetrated against a black man by mounted police in the U.S.

What’s even more sure is that a filmmaker like Gilles Groulx would have addressed such issues in all types of ways in his artful and political cinema, much as the actual Gilles Groulx did repeatedly over the course of his career.

The following four slides are just one instance of such commitment on Groulx’s part from a film—Où êtes-vous donc? (1969)—that contains many of them. Here, one of the film’s protagonists, Georges, chances upon an anti-war/anti-Vietnam War/anti-US imperialism protest in Dominion Square.

Smash colonialism in all its forms. Palestinian Lives Matter. Free Palestine.

Smash white supremacy in all its forms, especially its most violent. Black Lives Matter.

aj

Fabienne sans son Jules (1964)

Fabienne sans son Jules (1964), dir. Jacques Godbout—prod. ONF

Fabienne stars the iconic Pauline Julien in the title role, playing a free-spirited chanteuse much like herself. The film is notable for its scenes of Montreal nightlife and of the city at night more generally (which is why it was part of a “Night and the City” screening that some friends of mine and I organized at the Cinémathèque québécoise 20 years ago), but it also has something to say about cycling and romance and the airport and cinephilia (the film’s central conceit is that Fabienne is trying to get in touch with none other than Jean-Luc Godard):

“J’adore le cinéma!”

And with Montreal presently in thrall to an epic early spring (and the cycle-mania that comes with it), well…

[cycling; flowers; romance; cinephilia; Montréal-Dorval; YUL; cigarette smoke; telephone booths; newsstands; singers; chanteuses; Pauline Julien]

Watch this film here (en français).

And for more about Pauline Julien, her art, her career, and her politics, check out Pascale Ferland’s Pauline Julien, Intimate and Political (2018) here.

aj