{"id":110,"date":"2010-01-27T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2010\/01\/bernard-emond-on-faith-hope-and-charity\/"},"modified":"2010-01-27T13:58:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T13:58:00","slug":"bernard-emond-on-faith-hope-and-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2010\/01\/bernard-emond-on-faith-hope-and-charity.html","title":{"rendered":"Bernard \u00c9mond on faith, hope and charity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
I have seen only two of Bernard \u00c9mond\u2019s films so far \u2014 La neuvaine<\/a><\/i> aka The Novena<\/i> (2005), which he wrote and directed, and Ce qu\u2019il faut pour vivre<\/a><\/i> aka The Necessities of Life<\/i> (2008), which he simply wrote \u2014 but what I have seen, I have liked.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s an admittedly secular filmmaker, not a religious one, but he is sensitive to the role of religion in people\u2019s lives, and I am especially interested in his other films now that I hear La neuvaine<\/i> was conceived as the first part of a \u201ctrilogy\u201d on faith, hope and love<\/a>. Quoth today\u2019s Globe and Mail<\/a><\/i>:<\/p>\n

La Donation<\/i>, which opened last fall in Quebec, completes the Montreal writer-director\u2019s trilogy exploring the theological virtues of faith (La Neuvaine<\/i>, 2005), hope (Contre toute esp\u00e9rance<\/i>, 2006) and, now, charity through stories of personal and cultural loss. If it all sounds heavy, be assured there is nothing heavy-handed about \u00c9mond\u2019s deft, emotionally rich observational filmmaking, which has been lauded by festivals, critics and award juries since he turned from documentary to features with La Femme qui boit<\/i> in 2001. <\/p>\n

La Donation<\/i> revolves around Jeanne (\u00c9lise Guilbault), a Montreal emergency-room doctor who was also the central character in the trilogy\u2019s first film. Here, she arrives in the small Abitibi town of Norm\u00e9tal as the temporary replacement for the local doctor (Jacques Godin), who is nearing retirement and planning a short vacation. When he unexpectedly dies, Jeanne must tend to the community while considering her own future. \u201cIn the first film, Jeanne witnesses an assassination, holds herself responsible and is saved from killing herself because of a stranger\u2019s kindness,\u201d \u00c9mond explained during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. \u201cAfter that I wondered, what can be her life? What is a meaningful life?\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201ctotally secular answer,\u201d the self-described \u201cnon-believer\u201d said, can be found in La Donation<\/i> and its small-town setting. \u201cWe live in a society motivated by the logic of greed and I think we must reconnect ourselves with the logic of giving, which is so pervasive in traditional societies,\u201d said \u00c9mond, a trained anthropologist who worked for Inuit television in the Arctic earlier in his career. \u201cWe live in a system of exchange. I give you 10 bucks, you give me pair of shoes; after that, if you die, I don\u2019t care. Whereas in a traditional society, I give you something and maybe you don\u2019t give me something right now but you owe me. Maybe your descendants will give something to my descendants. The added benefit of giving is that it creates ties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remembering Gilles Groulx\u2019s 1960 National Film Board documentary Norm\u00e9tal<\/i>, \u00c9mond decided to scout the town as a possible location. \u201cWhen I stopped my car in front of the church, I was completely overtaken by a feeling of melancholy because the town I had seen in the film was no more,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAbitibi is one of the great chapters of Quebec history and one of the saddest. These are places where people created new communities, but these villages and their way of life are disappearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince my films explore different facets of loss and grief, Norm\u00e9tal was a very cinematographic place just waiting for its film \u2013 waiting for my film,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

La donation<\/i> opens in Toronto this coming Friday; I do not know whether, or when, it will be coming to Vancouver.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have seen only two of Bernard \u00c9mond\u2019s films so far \u2014 La neuvaine aka The Novena (2005), which he wrote and directed, and Ce qu\u2019il faut pour vivre aka The Necessities of Life (2008), which he simply wrote \u2014 but what I have seen, I have liked. He\u2019s an admittedly secular filmmaker, not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBernard \u00c9mond on faith, hope and charity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have seen only two of Bernard \u00c9mond's films so far -- La neuvaine aka The Novena (2005), which he wrote and directed, and Ce qu'il faut pour vivre aka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2010\/01\/bernard-emond-on-faith-hope-and-charity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bernard \u00c9mond on faith, hope and charity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have seen only two of Bernard \u00c9mond's films so far -- La neuvaine aka The Novena (2005), which he wrote and directed, and Ce qu'il faut pour vivre aka\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2010\/01\/bernard-emond-on-faith-hope-and-charity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-27T13:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/S2C5OEWChhI\/AAAAAAAADWM\/2gRikQK-UzU\/s400\/Bernard_Emond.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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