Film: Jutra (2014)
Film: Excellent
Transfer: n/a Extras: n/a
Label: n/a
Region: n/a
Released: n/a
Genre: Documentary / Hot Docs 2014
Synopsis: Claude Jutra’s own voice and images are cleverly integrated with animation to create a film that’s both a tribute and self-reflection on a career and the debilitating disease which robbed Quebec of a brilliant cinematic mind.
Special Features: n/a
Review:
A pivotal member of Quebec’s first wave of internationally acclaimed filmmakers, Claude Jutra rose to international acclaim with Mon oncle Antoine (1971) after making several shorts at the NFB during the 1950s and 1960s, and yet the quirks of the Canadian film industry – poor financing and distribution – and the temperaments of fickle critics arguably stymied what should’ve been a prolific career, and when faced with a declining mental state due to Alzheimer’s, he committed suicide in 1986.
Most affecting are his eerie reflections on the disease that was destroying his ability to remember and recognize, but Marie-Josee St-Pierre’s film also chronicles Jutra’s entry into filmmaking after an early career in medicine, his work with Norman McLaren, and his short and feature films using Jutra’s own words via images and sounds rotoscoped, edited, and layered into animated backgrounds. It’s an amazing process that resurrects Jutra’s ghost, but what emerges from his tragic death is his sense of humour, and the incredible energy from his work which, after seeing St-Pierre’s film, should be explored anew.
© 2014 Mark R. Hasan
External References:
IMDB — Hot Docs 2014 Listing
Vendor Search Links:
Amazon.ca
Category: Blu-ray / DVD Film Review
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