Guidelines (La
marche à suivre)
(Canada, 76 min.)
Written and directed by Jean-François Caissey
Programme: Canadian Spectrum (North American Premiere)
Guidelines might
seem like a film about nothing on the surface. The quietly observational film
by Jean-François Caissey, which comes to Hot Docs after a world premiere in
Berlin, is powerful in its subtle simplicity. This NFB production offers a
striking feat of juxtaposition as Caissey and editor Mathieu Bouchard-Malo
create a back-and-forth dialogue on the daily lives of adolescents in rural
Quebec. This deceptively modest film is one of the more formally ambitious
Canadian productions at Hot Docs this year.
The shot, however, signals the psychology that follows in
the succeeding shots. The film presents a group of energetic children who are
contained within the confines of their school-day structures, yet spend the
time outside of school hours running wild in the open space around them. The
crux of Guidelines comes in a series
of shots depicting various students at the school as they discuss their
behavioural issues with the counselors. The counselors, who are rarely seen
onscreen, sit outside the frame and let the long takes of Guidelines capture the students in intimate close-ups as they
detail stories of bullying and other school-yard incidents—one girl teases
another girl just for the sake of it, while one fights with a brother—that
supposedly disrupt the normal flow of life in the classrooms and the schoolyard.
The film smartly lets the students articulate their own thoughts and ruminate
on their own behaviour.
There isn’t anything particularly abnormal about the issues in
the students’ sessions. There is, however, an unexpected frankness with which
the students describe their altercations. They realize the effect their
behaviour—teasing, fighting—has on their classmates, but the students brush it
off with a kind of acceptance. It’s just part of growing up. The effect of
Caissey’s lingering long takes, though, situates the viewer directly at the
table with the students. Guidelines
is less an experience of watching a film and more an act of listening to a
conversation. Caissey lets the audience be an observer to the everyday life of
these teenagers, and one becomes gradually involves in the kids’ lives as the
film progresses.
One’s interest in the students grows as Guidelines creates a more comprehensive portrait of the
students as the shots between their reflections illustrate their lives outside
the school. The intermediary scenes of the film occur mostly outdoors where the
students are free from rules and structure. They find outlets for their
behaviour that convey a kind of youthful innocence. For example, one shot sees
a group of students roll up to a wooden bridge in a car and rev their tires as
they envelope themselves in a cloud of nasty smoke. The camera just sits there
motionless while the kids burn rubber, yet Guidelines
captures an accessible and uncontrived snapshot of youth.
The camera moves only once during all the long takes that
comprise the 76 minutes of Guidelines.
It’s during a prominent shot, one of few that show the interior of the school,
and the camera follows one boy as he shimmies along the graduated brickwork of
the hallway. He manoeuvers horizontally, crawling like a spider, and the camera
offers its one blatant pan as it turns to watch the boy complete his funny
traversal of the corridor. Boys will be boys, Guidelines suggests as the kids let loose with boisterous
behaviour, but that hardly excuses the conduct they discuss with the
counselors.
Caissey’s approach might be too taxing for some viewers
since the slow stasis of the film could be too meandering if one doesn’t
have a feel for the languid rhythm. However, the openness of Guidelines ultimately comes together for
a universal portrait of adolescence. Caissey makes it feel timeless, too, by
accenting the tableaux with classical music and by often leaving the ambient
noise of the schoolyard to fill the soundtrack. Guidelines is powerful in its quiet observation.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Screens with:
Jutra
(Canada, 13 min.)
Dir. Marie-Josée St-Pierre
Jutra is a must-see
doc for Canadian film fans. This brilliant short documentary from director Marie-Josée
St-Pierre, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada, is an ingenious
tip of the hat to one of Canada's most iconic filmmakers, Claude Jutra. Jutra takes the filmmaker’s own words
via an immersive mining of archival footage and it puts the great director in
dialogue with himself using an intricate collage. The film was recently
announced as a selection for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes following its
Hot Docs screening, so it’s safe to say that Jutra is going places.
Jutra packs a
wealth of insight into a mere thirteen minutes as the interview footage with
Jutra, and the filmmaker’s own playful words, are interwoven with excerpts of
films like À tout prendre and Mon Oncle Antoine and with archival
footage of home movies. This formally audacious film honours the director with
its stylish animation as it makes the legacy of Jutra’s work the core of its
inspiration while exploring the increasingly troubled psyche of the man
himself. The animated rendering of the collage brings the Jutra of the archival
footage to life by outlining him in a flickering aura that draws attention to
the spirit of filmmaking. Jutra becomes
darker as the animation guides the tonal shift that comes with Jutra’s account
of his struggle with Alzheimer’s and the director gradually loses himself in
his own drama. The film also features formal wizardry that cites Norman McLaren
and other Jutra contemporaries in an all-encompassing short on one of the great
pioneers of filmmaking in Quebec. This breathtaking work of art is worthy of
the man to which it pays homage.
Rating: ★★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Guidelines and Jutra screen:
-Mon, Apr. 28 at 6:00 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox
-Tues, Apr. 29 at 4:30 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox
-Sat, May 3 at 4:30 PM at Cineplex Scotiabank
Please visit www.hotdocs.ca for more information on this year’s
festival.