Introduction
Gilles Carle, OC GOQ (July 31, 1928 – November 28, 2009) was a French Canadian director, screenwriter and painter.
Gilles Carle, who was a key figure in the development of a commercial Quebec cinema, worked as a graphic artist and writer before he joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1960. His innovative debut feature, La Vie heureuse de Léopold Z., tracked the adventures of a snowplough operator during a madcap Christmas Eve. But after the NFB rejected several of his projects, he began working independently. In 1971 Carle joined forces with Pierre Lamy to form Les Productions Carle-Lamy, which produced Claude Jutra’s epic Kamouraska, Denys Arcand’s early features and all his early films. The quirkily paced, proto-feminist La Vraie Nature de Bernadette – widely regarded as his best film – and Le Mort d’un bûcheron eventually led to the more mainstream but graceful Les Plouffe and the epic love story Maria Chapdelaine, both classics of Quebec cinema.In 1972 Carle won the Canadian Film Award for best Director for his The True Nature of Bernadette.
Carle was born in Maniwaki, Quebec. His film 50 ans, celebrating the 50 years of the National Film Board of Canada, won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1990, he was awarded the Government of Quebec's Prix Albert-Tessier. In 1997, Carle received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. In 1998, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2007, he was made a Grand Officer of the Ordre National du Quebec.
Carle died aged 81 on November 28, 2009 of complications from Parkinson's disease at the hospital in Granby, Quebec. He is survived by his son and three daughters as well as his companion of 27 years, Chloé Sainte-Marie. Quebec Premier Jean Charest described him, at his death, as one of Quebec's most influential filmmakers.
Filmography
Feature films
- Solange dans nos campagnes (Short film, 1964) (Re-Released as part of the 1964 anthology film Trois Femmes)
- La vie heureuse de Léopold Z (1965)
- Le viol d'une jeune fille douce (1968)
- Red (1969)
- Les mâles (1970)
- La vraie nature de Bernadette (1972)
- Les corps célestes (1973)
- La mort d'un bûcheron (1973)
- La tête de Normande St-Onge (1975)
- L'Ange et la Femme (1977)
- L'âge de la machine (Short film, 1977)
- Fantastica (1980)
- Les Plouffe (1981)
- Maria Chapdelaine (1983)
- La guêpe (aka Scalp, 1986)
- La postière (1992)
- The Other Side of the Law (1994)
- Pudding chômeur (1996)
Documentaries
- Dimanche d'Amérique (Short film, 1961)
- Manger (Short film Co-Directed with Louis Portugais, 1961)
- Patinoire (Short film, 1962)
- Un air de famille (Short film, 1963)
- Natation (Short film, 1963)
- Patte mouillée (Short film, 1963)
- Percé on the Rocks (Short film, 1964)
- Place à Olivier Guimond (TV documentary, 1967)
- Place aux Jérolas (TV documentary, 1967)
- Le Québec à l'heure de l'Expo (Short film, 1967)
- Stéréo (Short film, 1970)
- Les chevaliers (1971)
- Les chevaux ont-ils des ailes? (Short film, 1975)
- Les masques (TV documentary aka Carle – masques, 1978)
- Jouer sa vie (Co-Directed with Camille Coudari, 1982)
- Cinéma, cinéma (Co-Directed with Werner Nold, 1985)
- Ô Picasso (Co-Directed with Camille Coudari, 1985)
- Vive Québec, cité française... ville francophone (1987)
- 50 ans (Short film, 1989)
- Le diable d'amérique (1990)
- Montréal off (Short film, 1991)
- Moi, j'me fais mon cinéma (1999)
Television
- Un hiver brûlant (TV episode of the series La feuille d'érable, 1971)
- A Thousand Moons (TV movie, 1976) (Created for TV series For the Record)
- Homecoming (TV movie aka Lonesome Riders, 1979) (Created for TV series For the Record)
- Le Crime d'Ovide Plouffe (TV miniseries Parts 1–4, 1983) (Parts 5–6 directed by Denys Arcand)
- Miss Moscou (TV movie, 1991)
- L'honneur des grandes neiges (TV movie, 1994) (Created for TV series Aventures dans le Grand Nord)
- Le sang du chasseur (TV movie, 1995) (Created for TV series Aventures dans le Grand Nord)
- Épopée en Amérique: une histoire populaire du Québec (TV series, 1997)