Patrick Watson, Elisapie, Alexandra Stréliski and Martha Wainwright are among the musicians who will perform at a show honouring Vallée, who died in 2021.
Jean-Marc Vallée told his son Alex he wanted his funeral to be festive.
“We had gone to the funeral of his father a few years ago and he took me and my little brother Émile aside, and he told us how depressing he thought the ceremony was,” said Alex Vallée, the filmmaker’s eldest son, in a recent phone interview.
Vallée was one of the province’s best-known filmmakers of the past couple of decades. He rose to prominence with the 2005 film C.R.A.Z.Y., a global art-house hit, and then made his mark in Hollywood with the Academy Award-winning film Dallas Buyers Club and the acclaimed TV series Big Little Lies.
Alex recounted how his father said: “‘If anything happens to me, I hope you do something more festive. We should celebrate my life rather than having a ceremony where we all live our pain together.’
“So we did his Quebec funeral at the Phi Centre. We had a super great night. We laughed, we danced, we cried. And when organizing his funeral, I thought it would be cool to do an exhibition on him.”
It was Beyries who came to Alex and suggested they do a concert in homage to his dad, who was an obsessive music fan. Alex met her for a drink and immediately thought it was a great idea.
“We’re doing all of this for Jean-Marc to keep the memory of him alive, to inspire the people who loved his work and to show how this kid from Montreal ended up in Hollywood to do the projects he dreamed about and at the same time conquered the biggest film market in the world,” said Alex. “All these projects, it’s a way to continue working with my father and in a way it keeps him alive. At the same time, it allows us to do our mourning.”
Vallée would make mixtapes for his friends, and that’s what had Alex thinking Mixtape would be the perfect name for a tribute concert. The show will feature many of the songs used in his father’s productions, along with songs that were favourites of Vallée.
Beyries had known Vallée for ages, from the days prior to her music career when she worked for a visual effects company that collaborated with the filmmaker, and they became close friends.
“It’s a show in his image,” said Beyries. “It has the songs he loved. There are songs by Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young.”
She talked of how into music he was.
“I remember when he came to see one of my shows for the first time, I think it was at the Phi Centre, he said: ‘This is bugging me. I wanted to be a rock star!’” said Beyries. “That was his dream, to be a rock star. So we’re going to do a rock-star show for him.”
Alex Vallée wanted to involve Grondin in the tribute, and the actor was in from the get-go. He underlined that it’s not a gala, it’s a music show.
“It’s the music that speaks,” said Grondin. “Nothing is scripted. Obviously if a guest wants to say something, they can. But we’re not there to tell stories. Pretty well everyone involved in the project worked with Jean-Marc or knew Jean-Marc. So we’re a bunch of friends of his who want to play the music he showcased in his work. Visually there will be some stuff, but it’s a music show. People are going to hear music from C.R.A.Z.Y., from Big Little Lies, from Café de Flore. All the music we think of when we think of Jean-Marc.”
AT A GLANCE