Michel Brault

An influential cinematographer, director and writer, Michel Brault worked as a professional photographer before finding himself in the field of cinema, thanks to the encouragement of his friend and colleague Claude Jutra. Brault collaborated with Jacques Giraldeau on Petites médisances (1953–1954, 39 episodes), a series made using the innovative new principles of the "Candid Eye movement.” In 1956, he joined the National Film Board, where he worked as a cameraperson on a number of Candid Eye series films, most notably The Days Before Christmas (1958, directed by Terence Macartney-Filgate).

That same year, Brault co-directed Les raquetteurs (1958) with Gilles Groulx, a work that was heralded as a sort of manifesto for the NFB’s francophone filmmakers. Defending a different approach to cinema, from then on Brault was part of a new documentary process that was equally technically innovative and artistically innovative. He worked on several films that have become classics; for instance, La lutte (1961), which he photographed, edited and co-directed with Claude Fournier, Claude Jutra and Marcel Carrière; Golden Gloves (1961), directed by Gilles Groulx; and Québec USA ou l’invasion pacifique (1961), also co-directed with Jutra. In photographing all of these films, Brault deliberately used the fluid style of movement developed through his signature method of carrying the camera on his shoulder. He also made use of a wide-angle lens, which put him at the heart of the action and close to his subjects.

In California, in 1959, Brault met the father of cinéma-verité, the Frenchman Jean Rouch, a man who would greatly influence his future. In 1961, he collaborated with Rouch and Edgar Morin on Chronique d’un été (France). During the shoot, he helped develop a new camera, the KMT Coutant-Mathot, the forerunner to the documentary cameras created by the Éclair corporation. In Europe, he collaborated with numerous filmmakers and refined the practice of a cinematic style already known as direct cinema.

Affected by the ethical issues surrounding his art form, Brault’s cinema reached new heights with Pour la suite du monde (1963) (co-directed with Pierre Perrault), a masterpiece of direct cinema. In search of more autonomy, he left the NFB in 1965 to found Nanouk Films. However, he did return to collaborate with the NFB a few more times. His political activism pushed him toward the question of national identity, an issue that can be found in such films as Un pays sans bons sens! (1970) and L’Acadie, l’Acadie?!? (1971), both co-directed with Perrault.

It was during the 1970s that he undertook two important series. The first one was Le son des français d’Amérique (1974–1976, 13 episodes; 1977–1980, 14 episodes), which he made at Nanouk Films and co-directed with André Gladu about the traditional music of French-speaking people throughout North America. The second notable series was La belle ouvrage (1977–1980, 22 episodes), made with the NFB. Brault photographed the series, which dealt with nearly obsolete occupations and traditional customs, and was co-directed by Bernard Gosselin, Léo Plamondon, Claire Boyer and Diane Létourneau.

Brault, who was active in feature length fiction since his collaboration with Claude Jutra on À tout prendre (1963), slowly gave up his documentary practice. His interest shifted to fiction, a form he embraced because it “doesn’t pretend to be the truth and therefore is not a lie.” His cinematography appears in several major works of Quebec fiction, including Jutra’s renowned Mon oncle Antoine (1971) and Francis Mankiewicz’s acclaimed Les bons débarras (1980). One of his most powerful fictional pieces as a director is the acclaimed Les ordres (1974), a film about the October Crisis that was strongly influenced by direct cinema. It won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival and four Genies.

Since 1988, he has made several pieces for television. Over a lengthy period in the 1990s, he produced two feature length films, Mon amie Max (1994) and Quand je serai parti… vous vivrez encore (1999), and later, shot Jacques Godbout’s Anne Hébert, 1916-2000 (2000). —Pierre Véronneau