Claude Jutra: Filmmaker

by Jim Leach

Through close readings of Jutra's major films, Jim Leach analyses their distinctive cinematic qualities and discusses the responses they have received from reviewers and critics. He focuses both on the films and the historical and cultural contexts in which they were made, arguing that critics have frequently used inappropriate criteria to judge them and that these misunderstandings reveal much about attitudes to Canadian cinema in general. Jutra's films are shown to reflect the instability of their cinematic and cultural contexts and raise important questions about nationhood. Jutra always identified himself as a separatist and his films were shaped by the rapid changes in Quebec society during the Quiet Revolution and by the political tensions of the sixties and seventies. At the same time his work was often appreciated by English Canadian critics and audiences and was affected by federal film policy and institutions. Although Jutra died in 1986, his films and career still have much to tell us about Canadian cinema and media production, and about the complex cultural contexts that underlie the ongoing debates on Canadian and Quebec nationhood.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Jim Leach is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University. He is the author of books on filmmakers Alain Tanner and Claude Jutra, as well as the author of British Film and Film in Canada. He has also published a monograph on Doctor Who (Wayne State University Press, 2009), co-edited a volume on Canadian documentary films, and developed a Canadian edition of an introductory film studies textbook.