Claude Jutra: Filmmaker by Jim Leach (review)

526 LEITERS IN CANADA 1999 watching a man plunge into a New England pond in autumn. Thinking implicitly of all of his poems, Tomlinson spoke out in favour of poetry's 'ceremonial aspect'; 'Swimming Chenango Lake' is the quintessential Tomlinson poem because it records both a literal initiation and a figurative 'ceremony of initiation' into an imagined experience. Poetry in the second half of the twentieth century has been marked by an obsession with the demands and the display of the ego. Tomlinson's plea for civility and ceremony makes an unusual antidote and a necessary corrective to such narcissistic excesses; his modesty in the performance of his art should remind us that a poem (as the late Howard Nemerov put it) 'is a way of getting something right in language.' (WILLARD SPIEGELMAN) Jim Leach. Claude /utra: Filmmaker McGill-Queen's University Press. xii, 306. $65.00. $24.95 Apart from the enduring success of Mon Onde Antoine, still considered 'the best Canadianmovie' ever made, ClaudeJutra's career has mostly met with indifference or controversy. In this sensitive and insightful study of Jutra, the first major study of this director, Jim Leach, delivers an in-depth analysis and reassessment of the body ofJutra's work. In the process, Leach delves into the complex relations between the literary and filmic texts, their cinematic expression, and the cultural and political contexts of Jutra's filmmaking. For someone like myself who has been a somewhat reluctant fan ofJutra because of and in spite of Mon Onde Antoine, Jim Leach's book has not only rekindled a wavering admiration but, more important, explained quite convincingly the ambivalence shared by so many critics about most of Jutra's films. Leach contextualizes in both a chronological and spiritual sense all of Jutra's works and demonstrates that even the least acclaimed or most criticized films participate in the establishment of the filmmaker's vision and artistic development. In the first three chapters, Leach explores the cinematic and cultural situation in Montreal that nurtured and gave form to Jutra's artistry. The following eight chapters are then each devoted to one ofJutra's major films - a critical reading and study that includes multiple cross-referencing to other films and film reviews. Over the years, many articles, reviews, and chapters of books have been written on Mon Onde Antoine and on Kamouraska , Jutra's film and Anne Hebert's novel. And yet, Leach's chapters 'Between Yesterday and Tomorrow: Mon Onde Antoine' and 'Mad Love, Lethal Love: Kamouraska' are rigorously developed, giving the reader, scholar, ornovice a deeper understanding and greater appreciation for both Jutra's and Hebert's works. In particular, the comparative approach used in the Kamouraska chapter leads to an intuitive exploration of the intimate and dangerous relationship between a well-known still-contemporary HUMANITIES 527 literary text and its cinematic transposition. The substance of this chapter goes beyond an analysis of parallel narrative structures and poetic visions, and the subordination of one to the other. In his discussion, Leach has kept the French titles of Jutra's films and even given them specialattention. His translations for discussion purposes and his analysis of the often double and even elastic meaning of the French title words are always precisely accurate and reveal a sensitive understanding and appreciation for those words. It is therefore ironic that the editing of this book has missed a few typos that pertain to a film title. Specifically, Pour Ie meillellret pOllr Ie pire becomes 'Pour Ie meilleur et pour la pire' both on page 173 in the first line of the first page devoted to this film, and later on page 179 as well. Of special interest in the structure and presentation of this book and of each chapter is the use of 'leading' photographs, as well as of suggestive subtitles. The filmography, abundant notes, and bibliography are impressive , and a testament to a labour of love that will be an extremely valuable source of references on Jutra. And while this is clearly a book on Jutra, it is also one thatraises and even answers many critical contemporary questions dealing with identity, national cinema, and cinematic space and artistry.In this...