À Hauteur d'homme

À Hauteur d'homme
Directed by Jean-Claude Labrecque
Written by Jean-Claude Labrecque
Starring Bernard Landry
Release date
 November 11, 2003
Running time
 95 min.
Country Canada
Language French

À Hauteur d'homme is a 2003 Canadian political documentary directed in 2003 by Jean-Claude Labrecque about Bernard Landry and the 2003 general election in Quebec, Canada. It won a Jutra Award for Best Documentary (tie) in 2004. Its style belongs to the Quebec cinéma direct school of filmmaking.

Overview

À Hauteur d'homme is a political documentary film revolving first around one man, Bernard Landry, leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), and second around the re-election campaign of his party in 2003. The movie shows an intimate, never-before-seen look at the works of an election campaign. The finality of the story, the defeat of the party, gives this work a mood of tragedy, but with final acceptance. It also features, amongst others, Landry's girlfriend, Chantal Renaud, and press attaché Hubert Bolduc.

Landry, the protagonist, is an independentist, social democrat, Premier of Quebec, fighting for the re-election of the Parti Québécois in the hope of obtaining his life's dream: the independence of Quebec from Canada. His opponents in the election, Jean Charest of the Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ) and Mario Dumont of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), are rarely seen in the film.

Along with his team, he goes through an intense experience in two periods. The first half of the campaign goes smoothly: Landry is relaxed and confident. After having fought for its very life, the party is popular again and leads the polls. The televised leaders' debate is the turning point. During the debate Charest confronts Landry with a news report purportingly quoting Jacques Parizeau, the former PQ premier, as being unrepentant for his 1995 referendum evening's unfortunate remarks. In the following days, this sparks a controversy that will be known as the Parizeau Affair. From then on, a second period begins. The PQ loses some steam. Charest slowly surpasses Landry in the polls.

Often trapped by insistent, forceful questions by reporters, Landry shares with the team his impression that journalists are unjustly harassing him and the party's campaign. After being, in turn, anxious, angry, and sometimes morose, he accepts the coming ineluctable defeat with serenity, but with much emotion, with the comfort of his loved ones and colleagues.

The documentary features the following politicians: Pauline Marois, André Boisclair and François Legault.

Landry's strategist team consists of: Richard Nadeau, Brigitte Pelletier, Hubert Bolduc, Denis Hardy, Frederic Alberro, Marie-Johanne Nadeau, Nathalie Verger, Pierre Langlois, Éric Côté and Jacques Wilkins.

Context

In 2002, the poll numbers for the Parti Québécois fell sharply. The PQ government had been in power for two mandates and was seen as worn-out by some. An important part of the PQ's support went to the Action Démocratique du Québec and its young leader, Mario Dumont, and some to the Liberal Party of Quebec. It is under this dramatic situation for the PQ followers that Landry underwent a revitalization of the party and its image. The PQ was aided by the fall popularity of the ADQ's ideas as their conservative nature was uncovered, and by social democratic measures taken by the PQ government like the passing of the Act to combat poverty and social exclusion. The Parti Québécois succeeded in gaining back popularity in the beginning of 2003 to take the lead in the public opinion polls again. The PQ felt confident again to take upon a singular task: to become the first Quebec government in more than forty years to win a third mandate.

It is at the time of the downfall of 2002 that Labrecque decided to work on bringing about a movie about the coming election. He stated that, for this election, he believed the PQ had a lot to win if it succeeded, and a lot to lose if it did not: the re-election of the party could bring Quebec to independence, while a loss had the potential of hurting the sovereigntist movement, perhaps halting it for years.

The 2003 Quebec election itself happened over the backdrop of the war in Iraq. The principal battles in that war took place during the first half of the campaign, diverting the attention of the media and the population. Landry became known for his custom of wearing the white ribbon worn by Quebecers in favour of peace. The wearing of this ribbon was soon adopted by the two other main party leaders, Charest and Dumont.

Despite a PQ comeback, Charest presented himself as a viable alternative for people in desire of change, especially during the leaders' debate. Also, the Parizeau Affair is said to have harmed Landry's campaign up to election day. The PQ lead vanished mid-campaign, and the Parti Libéral won the election.

Impact

A week before its theatre opening, À Hauteur d'homme gained much media attention. The animosity between Landry and the press within the movie, along with the occasional swearing of Landry in Quebec joual, was noted by many journalists. Some reporters considered Landry's reactions to the attitude of the press to be excessive. Also, the few swear words of Landry from the movie were played in loop on news channels.

The publicity acquired by the initial controversy partly assured the movie an immense success in theatres. In its first days, at the Ex-Centris theatre, where it was first shown in Montreal, the movie was often sold-out several hours before presentation. After it had opened, the consensus of the viewing public (along with the opinion of some critics and other journalists) was that the initial media presentation of the movie was misrepresentative of the complete work. The movie managed to spark public debate in the media about the (often described as unfair and aggressive) attitudes of Quebec journalists towards politicians and politics (and vice versa).

The movie also inscribed a catchphrase into Quebec popular culture: Audi alteram partem. During the movie, the sentence, Latin for listen to the other side, was repeatedly uttered by Landry to counteract the barrage of questions from reporters about the Parizeau Affair. It was meant to tell the reporters not to judge Parizeau before hearing his side (he was to give a press conference later that day) and to signify that he wished to wait for Parizeau to speak before making himself hasty comments. Landry studied Latin in college and has a reputation of liking to quote Latin phrases.

The way Landry acts in this movie surprised many. Landry is seen as a man of pride and high culture by many Quebecers, something that sometimes puts a distance between a public figure and the people in Quebec. Rather than hurting his reputation, his Québécois swearing broke that bourgeois image in some ways. Also, his sense of humour and humanity throughout the movie was felt by many viewers. Those seldom before seen aspects of the man subsequently inspired a popular wave of sympathy for him.

Production

Critics praised the work for its evocative, classy musical ambiance, and its lavish visual style.

General

For months, Landry was filmed everywhere he went, up to voting day. The fact that a politician had accepted to be filmed in such privacy impressed many and was therefore seen as an historical feat: few other movies have had such access to a political figure before.

Audio

These two previously existing (that is to say that they were not created for the movie soundtrack) musical compositions of the soundtrack are the backbone of the musical backdrop of the film. Audio excerpts from Amazon.com.

Visuals

It is rare for such emphasis be placed on attention to visual beauty in a documentary, especially a political one. This has brought much admiration for the work. It can be stated that Labrecque made it a point to show Landry as a human being with often very intimate, tight shots, breaking the standard of the news channel waist shot or talking heads type of clips that politicians are mostly seen through.

Other version

Labrecque has always said that his favourite version of the film was the cut of over three hours (this version is 104 minutes long). He has stated that he plans to one day send this version to the wide screen.

See also

References

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