If you’re in Montreal this summer and you’re a movie buff, there is a great multimedia exhibit and sound-journey to check out at the Centre PHI in Old Montreal on Jean-Marc Vallée (extended until July 6 and takes around an hour to go through). This is his first homage exhibit, after his death in winter 2021. The exhibit was organized by the gallery’s founder and director Phoebe Greene and Sylvain Dumais, working closely with Vallée’s son Alex.
The exhibit is divided into four principal rooms. The first room has his son Alex Vallée recollecting on his relationship to his father and music. Two more rooms let you hear stories about his work; one with ten booths to listen to audio commentaries on him by peers accompanied by famous songs from his films, and another dark room, where you can sit on beanbags, and listen to more testimonies. One room presents some of his earliest short films such as Les fleurs magiques (1995) and Les mots magiques (1998). These films are also available to watch in a bigger room at the end of the exhibit. Actor Marc-André Grondin makes the argument that his whole cinema is encapsulated in these earlier works.
Vallée was a rather private filmmaker and did not reveal much about himself in interviews. This exhibit opens his personal life up somewhat. For example, we hear Vallée speak of how it was only when he became a father that he started to invest more of himself into his filmmaking.
To hear his son talk about their relationship you can really feel that love, impact and how music was at the center of this. In this first room, there’s a mashup of samples from his scores and clips, that seems hand selected by his son and seems especially resonant for Vallée, who always said, “I don’t try to hide it, there’s always a little autobiographical trait in my films, that tries to express how I feel.” The
re’s also a maquette of his childhood Rosemont home.
The early short-films also especially resonant – especially as they’ve never been distributed on home-video before – to understand his troubled childhood, which pushed him towards music, which he said made him dream and imagine a more exciting world then the one that he was living in.
In this period, Sinéad O’Connor was a big influence, and so was Led Zeppelin. Through the commentary, we learn of Vallée’s failed attempt to get the rights to the latter’s “Stairway to Heaven” for Café de flore (2011). His music supervisor, Susan Jacobs, recalled how after getting the rights to one of Led Zep’s songs for Sharp Objects (2018), Vallée told her that at a younger age the band’s music helped him find meaning in his life.
Audio commentaries let you listen to famous actors like Vanessa Paradis, Evelyne Brochu, Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, and Laura Dern speak about his life and work. Stories from Denis Babin from his inner circle, friend Marie-Julie Dallaire, producer Pierre Evan, cinematographer Yves Bélanger and compatriot Denis Villeneuve were especially insightful. All contributors spoke very highly of him.
Paradis said that Vallée was a fascinating figure on set and would act out scenes to help inspire everyone to bring out their best work. Witherspoon spoke about her cellphone videos of him singing during his famous karaoke sessions while filming Big Little Lies which you can watch at the end of exhibit. Laura Dern, in her commentary, spoke reverently of him saying that they had a “master plan” to work together for the rest of their lives. It is both extremely touching and heart-breaking.
Hauntingly, after hearing about his obsessive work writing the script to his John Lennon and Yoko Ono biopic, you hear his last remaining voicemail, telling a friend he was going to go to his new house in Quebec’s countryside, which must have been shortly before he died at age 58 of a heart attack.
I take great pride in Canadian cinema that we had one of the greatest working directors and that he lived in Montreal. This exhibit is a fitting tribute. And make sure to leave with a link to the Spotify playlist so that you can take part of it home.
