Socioeconomics and Anti-Sovereignist Sentiment in Les bons débarras :: Film Movies Films Essays

Socioeconomics and Anti-Sovereignist Sentiment in Les bons dà ©barras Considering the maelstrom of sovereignist sentiment in which late 1970s Quà ©bec politics and society were immersed, it seems almost inevitable that Quà ©bec cinema emerging during that time should be examined for some evidence of nationalist ideology. Les bons dà ©barras, directed by Francis Mankiewicz and based on a screenplay by Quà ©bà ©cois novelist Rà ©jean Ducharme, was written in 1977, but first saw theatrical release in 1980. Arriving as it did just as Renà © Là ©vesque’s Parti Quà ©bà ©cois ascended to power on its promise to hold a referendum on sovereignty-association, Les bons dà ©barras is as likely a target as any for a nationalist-perspective analysis. The film demands critical attention for two additional, marginally related reasons. First, it is considered exceptional as one of only a handful of well received Quà ©bec films produced during the so-called tax shelter era. Second, it garnered attention nationally, reversing a trend which had seen Can ada’s film awards and even critical attention directed traditionally to poor-quality, big-budget, English-language productions financed by the tax-shelter (Lamphier, 1981). Cumulatively, these factors make Les bons dà ©barras an attractive film with which to argue larger issues of Canada-Quà ©bec relations and ideas of national identity. Ian Lockerbie (1988) endeavours to construct just such an argument. Lockerbie suggests that despite the lack of any direct reference to nationalist politics in Les bons dà ©barras, the film presents evidence of a "collective identity" which penetrates deeper than consciously revealed symbolism, and which manifests itself in individual identities and anxieties (1988: 122). The film, Lockerbie claims, offers within the cathartic emancipation of individual characters an implicit manifestation of Quà ©bec sovereignism. By basing his analysis on such deeply buried subtext, however, I think Lockerbie ignores the film’s more obvious engagement with contemporary social and economic conditions. Granted, one inevitably risks a certain degree of impudence whenever venturing to assign allegorical meaning to any film as Lockerbie has done. But I would suggest that if Les bons dà ©barras does in fact propose any commentary on Quà ©bec nationalism, it is not sovereignist at all, as Locke rbie argues, but rather offers an admonitory refusal of Quà ©bec ambitions for independence. The goals of the Quà ©bec sovereignism are traditionally idealized, in part, as a shift from the strength historically drawn from the domestic, familial community toward strength to be gained in achieving social and economic self-sufficiency within Canada. Les bons dà ©barras, however, presents a community whose attempts to attain social integrity and economic self-sufficiency have utterly failed, and whose strength must be found only in retreat to the domestic sphere. Socioeconomics and Anti-Sovereignist Sentiment in Les bons dà ©barras :: Film Movies Films Essays Socioeconomics and Anti-Sovereignist Sentiment in Les bons dà ©barras Considering the maelstrom of sovereignist sentiment in which late 1970s Quà ©bec politics and society were immersed, it seems almost inevitable that Quà ©bec cinema emerging during that time should be examined for some evidence of nationalist ideology. Les bons dà ©barras, directed by Francis Mankiewicz and based on a screenplay by Quà ©bà ©cois novelist Rà ©jean Ducharme, was written in 1977, but first saw theatrical release in 1980. Arriving as it did just as Renà © Là ©vesque’s Parti Quà ©bà ©cois ascended to power on its promise to hold a referendum on sovereignty-association, Les bons dà ©barras is as likely a target as any for a nationalist-perspective analysis. The film demands critical attention for two additional, marginally related reasons. First, it is considered exceptional as one of only a handful of well received Quà ©bec films produced during the so-called tax shelter era. Second, it garnered attention nationally, reversing a trend which had seen Can ada’s film awards and even critical attention directed traditionally to poor-quality, big-budget, English-language productions financed by the tax-shelter (Lamphier, 1981). Cumulatively, these factors make Les bons dà ©barras an attractive film with which to argue larger issues of Canada-Quà ©bec relations and ideas of national identity. Ian Lockerbie (1988) endeavours to construct just such an argument. Lockerbie suggests that despite the lack of any direct reference to nationalist politics in Les bons dà ©barras, the film presents evidence of a "collective identity" which penetrates deeper than consciously revealed symbolism, and which manifests itself in individual identities and anxieties (1988: 122). The film, Lockerbie claims, offers within the cathartic emancipation of individual characters an implicit manifestation of Quà ©bec sovereignism. By basing his analysis on such deeply buried subtext, however, I think Lockerbie ignores the film’s more obvious engagement with contemporary social and economic conditions. Granted, one inevitably risks a certain degree of impudence whenever venturing to assign allegorical meaning to any film as Lockerbie has done. But I would suggest that if Les bons dà ©barras does in fact propose any commentary on Quà ©bec nationalism, it is not sovereignist at all, as Locke rbie argues, but rather offers an admonitory refusal of Quà ©bec ambitions for independence. The goals of the Quà ©bec sovereignism are traditionally idealized, in part, as a shift from the strength historically drawn from the domestic, familial community toward strength to be gained in achieving social and economic self-sufficiency within Canada. Les bons dà ©barras, however, presents a community whose attempts to attain social integrity and economic self-sufficiency have utterly failed, and whose strength must be found only in retreat to the domestic sphere.