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Candid Eyes: The Films of Michel Brault and Claude Jutra

Michel Brault and Claude Jutra were at the forefront in helping Québec establish a national cinema distinct from their fellow Canadians. Jutra began making films at the age of eighteen, when he enlisted the help of Brault to produce Movement perpetual, which garnered recognition at the 1950 Canadian Film Awards. Both men went to work for the National Film Board of Canada as Québec was undergoing the radical social changes of the Quiet Revolution, which placed new values on Francophone culture. Following the lure of the French New Wave, Jutra and Brault briefly left Canada for Paris where they collaborated with Francois Truffaut, producer of Jutra’s short film Anna la bonne, and Jean Rouch, for whom Brault shot scenes for Chronicle of a Summer. On their return to Canada, they embarked on two of the most influential projects of the period.  Brault’s Pour la suite du monde (co-directed with cinéma direct pioneer Pierre Perrault) brought international acclaim to the Québécois directors’ observational approach to nonfiction filmmaking. À tout prendre’s improvisational strategies earned Jutra praise from directors such as Jean Renoir and John Cassavetes. Continuously exploring new directions, these directors crafted an innovative and diverse body of work, influencing filmmakers around the world and defining a new cinema for Québec.

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