Interim director Michel Pradier believes the FNC has the potential to become more than just a great Montreal film festival.
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Never a dull moment on Montreal’s film festival circuit. For years, the main source of drama was Montreal’s shambolic Festival des films du monde, under the temperamental leadership of Serge Losique, which finally bit the dust a few years back after surviving on life support for far longer than anyone expected.
Pradier was circumspect about the reasons for Deltruc’s dismissal in a recent interview as he counted down the days to the FNC’s 53rd edition from Oct. 9 to 20.
“He was already gone when I was hired,” Pradier said. “That was something between the board of directors and Nicolas. In my opinion, it seems clear that the administrative aspect (of the festival) was not modernized to the liking of the board.
“The FNC has a history. It’s one of the old festivals that were started by people like Mr. Chamberlan, in which there was only one captain on board. It was kind of a one-man show (under Deltruc). If it’s a small festival, that’s fine, but this is a big festival with 11 permanent employees, 75 more at festival time plus a few hundred volunteers over 10 days. It takes a strong, structured administration to oversee all the different departments so that it runs smoothly. I think in that sense, in terms of the administrative vision, (Deltruc and the board) didn’t get along.”
Pradier has brought his administrative expertise to the table over the past six months. He was particularly proud that at the end of September, the festival and its employees signed a new collective agreement. (The previous one had been expired for several years.)
“It’s important to show the FNC employees we care about them,” he said, adding that a new accountant was recently hired “to restructure and reinforce the financial section of the festival — that’s the spine. You need a solid administration so that employees can prove their competence and show that the FNC is a good festival.”
That kind of behind-the-scenes work is essential to ensuring the FNC survives and flourishes well into the future, according to Pradier. If ever there was any doubt, one has only to look at the sad, above-noted example of the ill-fated and terminally ill-organized Festival des films du monde.
With a good foundation, Pradier believes the FNC has the potential to become more than just a great Montreal festival. He says it can be a mover and shaker internationally.
“The FNC already has a long track record,” he noted. “It’s been around for 53 years. Its DNA is very solid. It’s known as a festival of the nouvelle vague, the avant-garde, of independent cinema. I think it’s important to stick closely to that. It’s what distinguishes the FNC from other festivals. But the FNC has to develop a strategy it can refine and bring internationally. That’s the logical path for the FNC, to become a key stop on the international circuit, without imitating Cannes or Toronto.”
Pradier is on contract with the FNC until January. In November, once this edition is over, he and the board will sit down to develop a new governance strategy for the festival going forward.
“Part of my mandate is to see what’s being done at other festivals, and what structure we can give the FNC to ensure its growth,” he said.
The programming for this year’s FNC once again offers a hand-picked selection of some of the most acclaimed films from the international festival circuit, along with the cream of the crop from Quebec and the rest of Canada.
The opening film is Montrealer Matthew Rankin’s Une Langue universelle (Universal Language), which premièred as part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and is Canada’s selection for consideration in the Oscar category of best international film. The offbeat comedy takes place in an imaginary Canada where French and Persian are the two official languages.
“It was an obvious choice for us,” said FNC programming director Zoé Protat. “It’s an irresistible film that is funny, intelligent and moving.”
Among the high-profile offerings in the FNC’s The Essentials section are sneak peeks of some of the most talked-about movies of the year: Sean Baker’s American excess story Anora, winner of Cannes’ Palme d’Or; Andrea Arnold’s Bird, a British social realist drama tinged with magic that is the follow-up to her 2016 romp American Honey; French director Jacques Audiard’s turbo-charged musical Emilia Pérez, starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Karla Sofía Gascon, who jointly won best actress at Cannes this year; and two films by Korean master Hong Sang-soo, A Traveler’s Needs, starring Isabelle Huppert, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and By the Stream, a contemplation of loneliness that won Kim Min-hee best performance at the Locarno Film Festival.
The section also includes Albert Serra’s visceral bullfighting documentary Tardes de Soledad, which just won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Protat calls it one of her “coups de coeur,” or favourite films of this year’s FNC lineup: “It’s so hard to watch, but the images are extraordinarily beautiful.”
Protat also highlight’s Arnold’s film Bird, which she says “was unjustly omitted from Cannes’ prize-winners,” and Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a nuanced thriller shot in secrecy that won Cannes’ Special Jury Prize.
As for the rest of the programming, Protat recommends people see everything in the FNC’s International Competition section.
“These are our favourite films, containing the nicest discoveries we made this year,” she said.
As usual, the FNC’s Temps Ø series features a subversive selection of underground fare including several Asian films and Le Deuxième acte, the latest from French absurdist Quentin Dupieux.
The festival wraps each day with a party at UQAM’s Agora, including a beach-themed movie marathon beginning at 8 p.m. on Oct. 12 during which all four Jaws films will be screened.
In other words, despite the shakeup at the top, a love of cinema still reigns at the FNC.
“We tried at the programming level to make things as easy as possible for everyone so that the festival remains devoted to its audience,” Protat said. “That was our goal: to offer a rich festival of interesting possibilities for our spectators, and for the upheaval not to be felt (on screen). That was guiding line for this year.”