TV: galas are dinosaurs

It’s not me who’s going to cry over the disappearance of the Gala Québec Cinéma.

That Radio-Canada decided to « pull the plug » on this boring gala is not a big loss. The last two editions were dull and featureless, with starved text and anemic animation.

And once gone, why not send all the galas to the TV cemetery?

THE MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY

Too often galas, which are supposed to be ‘celebrations of excellence’, are actually gatherings of boyfriends from the ‘middle’ who congratulate each other forgetting that there is an audience.

Rent a room at a convention center, and tell each other how great and wonderful you are if you care that much!

Between the jokes that only insiders can understand and the live settling of accounts (hello Guillaume!), between the endless thanks and the preaching speeches, we must note that the galas have not been renewed.

They got stuck in the same formula: a little variety number, a joke that falls flat, the list of nominees, the winner’s flat speech, commercial break, a little variety number, a joke that falls flat, the list of nominees, the flat speech of the winner, etc….

The Quebec Media Production Association (AQPM) reacted yesterday to Radio-Canada’s decision by writing: « it is inconceivable that the public broadcaster should withdraw so significantly from the visibility of French-language Quebec cinema in at the very moment when it is essential to restore the motivation of the public to go to the rooms and to view on all the screens works which testify to our identity and our creativity”.

But why should it take the form of a gala?

What if we started by giving more space to culture in broadcasts, since we don’t even have a cultural magazine on public television anymore?

Why not do interviews with filmmakers and actors to tell them about something other than the color of their grass or their breakups on hyped talk shows?

CRY WOLF

Yes, we need to give greater visibility to Quebec cinema, but there is an elephant in the room that no one talks about. It’s the complacency of critics here towards films made here.

How many times have I gone to see local films for press viewing only to fall out of my chair a few days later while reading or listening to my colleagues’ reviews.

Journalists are reluctant to say what they think when they criticize a film made here or want to protect their friends in the industry,

I made many enemies in the « Wonderful World of Quebec Cinema » by expressing my thoughts on films like Hochelaga, land of souls, Arlette, La Bolduc or even by emitting flats on an Arcand less good than the others.

The best way to « motivate the public to go to theaters » is to make damn good films.

Afterwards, we will argue about the size of the trophy.