Olivier Godin's The Art of Speech (2016) is exclusively showing August 16 – September 15, 2018 on MUBI in most countries in the world as part of the series Canada's Next Generation.
One should not be surprised by nostalgia. Though it is best to remain cautious. For what do cineastes feel nostalgic? A style, a school of thought, a relationship to the image rendered as a kind of fetishism, or in my case, a relationship to the word. Turning to the past in creating for the future demands a certain rigor. As an artisanal filmmaker who likes to think of cinema as a popular art form, I ask whether it may also be a vehicle for discussing poetry, identity, or a certain relationship to the word?
Whichever the case, I was attempting to make neither an homage, nor something rooted in nostalgia. Even less so a post-modern recycling inspired by clichés and ideas that belong to a more flamboyant cinematic vision. From a cinephile's point of view I would have created a poetic meditation on the police-action film, a romantic and oversimple meditation. This was the view of one audience member—and one that I did not refute.
Working with the word, the elements of cinema are almost laid bare and it is through its graces that the artisanal cineaste is able to rethink and reconsider the means of production. It is also this process that brings about innovation and, in my case, a strong rapport with an actor's energy.
Hervé Bouchard wrote: "Playing and being, it's the same thing. Except one can cease playing. But there it becomes boring."
I wanted to work with actors who were not really actors. I wanted to work with storytellers and non-professionals, people who had a particular relationship to words. Michael Yaroshevsky (Koroviev) was my professor at University (he is also a talented filmmaker). Michael Faubert (Margerie) and Jean-Marc Massie (O'Byrne) are both well-known storytellers in Quebec. Etienne Pilon (Clément) is an actor. Jennyfer Desbiens (Coriander) is an actor who trained as a mime.
One day in a notebook I wrote Chris Marker's words: "humour is the politeness of despair." Digging through the past to better probe the future I especially hoped to create a film filled with humor, a bit of action, gentleness, and a few songs. To be more precise, I wanted to speak about the world simply, with imagination, by presenting the daily life of the policeman with its romantic and marvelous possibilities that would seem disengaged from certain realistic conventions and which by their "acute bias," as writes Jacques Ferron (my master), are a way to surprise reality, to get to the core of its ambiguities; to reveal rather than resolve them.
When I was a child, I innocently thought that the policeman was a hero. Real, courageous, virtuous: a true protector of the free world. Among many other dark and serious elements that belong to this free world and which childhood, within its vast shield, is unable to comprehend, I eventually discovered the global phenomenon commonly called police brutality. I'm certain you too know a bit about it. Alas, there comes a day when one must discover the existence of police brutality. The heroic, brave and virtuous policeman, the one with whom I grew up, the one my favorite actors played, suddenly existed no more.
The idea behind The Art of Speech came from there, a child's heart wounded by the real; those strange roots that form and reveal a past a little more pure and breathable. Through this prism I believe that fiction is able on occasion to bring about a sense of resolution. To define something exact that sleeps in the depths of reality.
What would the ideal policeman look like in today's world? He would sing, he would read and teach poetry! He would have a sense of humor or at least a kind of bitterness from which a sense of irony would flow. Something funny. I say that if he had to fight, he would only ever use his bare hands. Then again I think the policemen that I've created are far from perfect. Let's say they're interesting and ambiguous. I present them to you today with gratitude for giving me your attention and wishing you an attentive screening.
Thank you.