Claude Jutra

Filmmaker

• Born: March 11, 1930
• Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec
• Died: 1986
• Place of death: Quebec

Contribution: Claude Jutra was a Canadian filmmaker who significantly influenced the film industry as a director, actor, writer, and editor. A native of Quebec, Jutra made most of his films in French. While not always financially successful, his films, which often addressed controversial subjects, were critically acclaimed. Some are considered among the best Canadian films of all time.

Education and Early Career

Claude Jutras was born on March 11, 1930, in Montreal, Quebec. The filmmaker later removed the letter s from the end of his family name, as there was “only one Jutra.” This independent spirit defined Jutra’s career.

The son of a physician, Jutra initially pursued a career in medicine. He earned a medical degree when he was twenty-two, but rather than establish a medical practice like his father, Jutra pursued his lifelong love of the cinema. He enrolled at École du Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal, where he studied theater and film for two years. After that, he traveled to Paris to attend the René Simon School.

Jutra began making films before he finished medical school and completed his first film when he was eighteen. A year later, he made his second film in collaboration with Michel Brault, a friend and filmmaker. Released in 1949, Mouvement perpétuel (Perpetual motion) won a Canadian Film Award.

After completing his medical studies, Jutra began working for Quebec television. In 1953, one of his television plays was broadcast by Radio-Canada. The following year, Jutra joined Canada’s National Film Board (NFB), where he would complete much of his early work. His first films included a documentary about French Canadian folk music and a documentary about an international orchestra for young people. In 1957, he worked with animator Norman McLaren on the short film A Chairy Tale.

Jutra traveled to Paris in 1959. There, he had the opportunity to work with prominent French filmmakers, including François Truffaut and Jean Rouch. Rouch accompanied Jutra to Africa in 1961 to film Le Niger, jeune république (The Niger, young republic), a documentary about the liberation of Niger from French rule.

Jutra returned to Canada in the 1960s and reunited with Brault. Brault and Jutra directed the documentaries La lutte (1961; Wrestling) and Québec-U.S.A. ou l’invasion pacifique (1962; Visit to a Foreign Country) for the NFB. Brault’s short film Les enfants du silence (1962) was written and narrated by Jutra.

Later Career

In 1963, Jutra left the NFB and started his own production company, Les Films Cassiopée. His first independent project, the film À tout prendre (1964), was controversial and not very successful, but Jutra rebounded with documentaries about skateboarding, innovations in education, and the lives of teenagers.

The 1971 film Mon oncle Antoine (My Uncle Antoine) secured Jutra’s position in Canadian film. The film tells the story of a teenage boy growing up in a 1950s Quebec mining community. Mon oncle Antoine, which won numerous awards, remains one of Canada’s most important films. Jutra’s next project was the 1973 film Kamouraska. When the film’s producers learned that it was almost three hours long, they insisted it be cut to two hours. The edited version was a disappointment to its director and its audience.

In 1976, Jutra moved from Montreal to Toronto to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). There, Jutra agreed for the first time to make English-language productions. In 1976, he directed the television series Ada and film Dreamspeaker (winner of a Canadian Film Award), followed by The Wordsmith in 1979. The acclaim of these English-language projects opened new opportunities for Jutra. In 1981, he directed Surfacing, a feature film based on the Margaret Atwood novel. In 1982, he released the comedy film By Design. The following year, Jutra had the opportunity to remake his failed film, Kamouraska. This time he shot in English and carefully oversaw the editing process.

In 1985, Jutra released a French-language film about the mistreatment of Quebec orphans in the 1940s. This film would be his last. Although he was only in his fifties, Jutra was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

On November 5, 1986, Jutra left his home and never returned. Many people suspected that the famous filmmaker had killed himself. Five months after his disappearance, on April 19, 1987, Jutra’s body was discovered in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. He was carrying a note that said, “Je suis Claude Jutra” (“I am Claude Jutra”).

Legacy

Although Jutra was only fifty-six when he died, he left behind a lasting legacy in the world of film. He won many awards, including Quebec’s 1984 Albert-Tessier Prize for lifetime achievement. Since his death, awards have been named in Jutra’s honor. The Claude Jutra Award for direction of a first feature film is presented each year by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to an emerging filmmaker. The annual Jutra Awards honor Quebec’s best films and filmmakers. The Jutra Lifetime Achievement Award is given to outstanding contributors to the Quebec cinema arts.

Principal Works

Mouvement perpetual, 1949

A Chairy Tale, 1957

Le Niger, jeune république, 1961

La lutte, 1961

Québec-U.S.A. ou l’invasion pacifique, 1962

À tout prendre, 1964

Mon oncle Antoine, 1971

Kamouraska, 1973

Ada, 1976

Dreamspeaker, 1976

The Wordsmith, 1979

Surfacing, 1981

By Design, 1982

Kamouraska, 1983

Bibliography

Gittings, Chris. Canadian National Cinema. London: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Leach, Jim. Claude Jutra: Filmmaker. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1999. Print.

Marshall, Bill. “New Spaces of Empire: Quebec Cinema’s Centers and Peripheries.” Cinema at the Periphery. Ed. Dina Iordanova, David Martin-Jones, and Belén Vidal. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2010. 119–36. Print.

Melnyk, George. Great Canadian Film Directors. Edmonton: U of Alberta P, 2007. Print.

Pike, David L. Canadian Cinema Since the 1980s: At the Heart of the World. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2012. Print.