Denyse Benoit

Last updated

Denyse Benoit is a Canadian actress, director and screenwriter from Montreal, Quebec. She is mostly known for La Crue (1977), La belle Apparence (1979) and Le dernier Havre (1986). [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Denyse Benoit was born on June 28, 1949, in Sainte-Dorothée, Quebec, Canada. She studied painting and sculpture from 1966 to 1968 at the School of Fine Arts in Montreal. After finishing her two years of university studies in Quebec, she moved to Belgium to continue to broaden her education. She studied at the Institute des arts de diffusion in Brussels. [2] During those three years of studying she broadened her knowledge in multiple mediums associated to the arts. She took classes such as mass media, literature history, theater history, music, text manipulations, vocal expression, and text analysis. [1]

After her studies

In January 1971, once she obtained her diploma, she started an internship with actress and stage director Catherine Dasté in Paris at the Green Apples Theatre. During the month, she assisted Dasté in the direction of her play Glomoël et les pommes de terres géantes. In a paper she wrote, Catherine Dasté explains that Denyse Benoit was a hard working women and that she achieved her objectives with diligence and competence. [3] After this internship she decided to continue working as a stage director for a while in Europe. In Belgium she took part in shows designed for children as an actress, host and stage director.

Career

Back in Quebec she taught theatre and did cultural animation in Gaspésie and Montreal. [4] At that time she already had written multiple scenarios such as La rué verte, Un instant près d’elle, Les sourires passagers, and Jeux de relations. In 1973 she wrote and directed her first short film Coup d'œil blanc (1973) and in 1974 she wrote her second one Un instant près d’elle (1974). [1]

In 1976 she wrote and directed her third short film La Crue (1976), which takes place during the yearly spring flood in the Montreal suburbs of the same name. La Crue was created with the help of her friends and an extremely small budget. It was filmed during the weekends, which lasted a month, in which the flood took place that spring. The film won Best Scenario at the Festival de l'image de Montréal and was selected in many international festivals. In one French festival, her film was considered one of the best projections out of the ten that were presented. [5]

In 1979 she directed, wrote and produced her first feature-length film La belle apparence (1979). Her film was selected in multiple festivals in Montreal and in France. At that time, French people did not know much about Quebec cinema and the film was an eye opening experience for them. [6] In 1980 she wrote a script for an RTBF documentary named L’Étiquette (1980) that was directed by Manu Simon. In 1986 she wrote and directed her second feature-length film Le dernier havre, which is an adaptation of Yves Thériault’s book of the same name. The film is about the last days of an old fisherman's life and was filmed in the Baies des chaleurs. It won the Public Prize of the seven-day festival of Hull-Ottawa cinema. [1] It also won a special mention at the festival of the sea in Toulou, France. She started working on the film in 1979 and it was only in 1982 that the script was finally ready to be brought to the big screen. The writer Yves Thériault, unfortunately died before the film was finished and never saw the result. [7]

In 1986 she gave birth to her son and decided to concentrate her time on writing scripts. In 1991 she came back and wrote and directed a docudrama named Two Thieves (1991), which was about a Montreal sculptor and was presented on CBC Toronto. In 2003 to 2004 she wrote and directed a feature-length drama film named Le Secret de Cyndia, which was produced by Daniel Morin in Video format with an extremely low budget. [8] During this time she also co-wrote another feature-length film named Station Nord, a Christmas story. [1]

After career

From 2005 to 2006 she stopped making movies and concentrated her work on writing literature for adults and for children. She wrote "Le lieu fit", "Olivia du Tarn", "Les contes de l'enfant aux tissous". She also started drawing illustrations for books and in 2009 she built her own studio where she concentrates her time on doing artistic work. [1] Like she said in an interview, plastic arts are her favourite past-time. [9]

Important position

From 1976 to 1990 she was the vice-president and treasurer of the Quebec directors association. [1]

Filmography

Short Film

YearTitleRolePrize
1973Coup d'oeil blancscreenwriter and director
1974Un Instant près d'ellescreenwriter and director
1976La Cruescreenwriter and directorPrize of the best scenario at the Montreal festival of Images

Selected in multiple international festivals

Feature Length Film

YearTitleRolePrize
1979La belle apparencescreenwriter and director
1980L'étiquettescreenwriter
1986Le dernier havrescreenwriter and directorPublic Prize at the seven-day festival of Hull-Ottawa cinema
1991Two Thievesscreenwriter and director
2003-2004Le Secret de Cyndiascreenwriter and director
2003-2004Station NordScreenwriter

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Godbout</span> Canadian novelist, essayist, childrens writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet

Jacques Godbout, OC, CQ is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler (touche-à-tout), Godbout has become one of the most important writers of his generation, with a major influence on post-1960 Quebec intellectual life.

Lise Payette was a Canadian politician, journalist, writer, and businesswoman. She was a Parti Québécois (PQ) minister under the leadership of Premier René Lévesque and National Assembly of Quebec member for the riding of Dorion. Originally a journalist, Payette became a television host in the 1960s. She left politics in 1981 and returned to a successful career in television production and writing.

Léa Pool C.M. is a Canadian and Swiss filmmaker who taught film at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and she was the first woman to win the prize for Best Film at the Quebec Cinema Awards. Pool's films often opposed stereotypes and refused to focus on heterosexual relations, preferring individuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isild Le Besco</span> French actress and filmmaker (born 1982)

Isild Le Besco is a French actress and filmmaker. She is of French and Algerian descent on her mother's side, and Vietnamese and Breton on her father's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Leclerc</span>

Francis Leclerc is a Canadian film and television director, screenwriter and film editor. He is the son of Félix Leclerc. Since 1995 he has worked in the Quebec film industry, directing music videos for many well-known Quebec artists. He has directed more than 20 short and medium-length films, including a television adaptation of Robert Lepage’s Les Sept branches de la rivière Ota. He directed and co-wrote his critically acclaimed debut feature, A Girl at the Window , in 2001. His second feature, Looking for Alexander , a nuanced and mature work about lost memory and childhood tragedy, secured him Genie Awards for best director and screenplay as well as the Prix Jutra for direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Émond</span> Canadian film director and screenwriter

Anne Émond is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, currently based in Montreal, Quebec.

Sophie Deraspe is a Canadian director, scenarist, director of photography and producer. Prominent in new Quebec cinema, she is known for a 2015 documentary The Amina Profile, an exploration of the Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari hoax of 2011. She had previously written and directed the narrative feature films Missing Victor Pellerin in 2006, Vital Signs in 2009, The Wolves in 2015,

<i>Its Only the End of the World</i> 2016 film by Xavier Dolan

It's Only the End of the World is a 2016 drama film written, directed and edited by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the 1990 play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel. It is about a young playwright who reunites with his family after a 12-year absence to inform them he is going to die.

<i>Nelly</i> (2016 film) 2016 film by Anne Émond

Nelly is a 2016 Canadian biographical-drama film directed by Anne Émond and starring Mylène Mackay as Nelly Arcan, an award-winning Canadian author and former sex worker who committed suicide in 2009. The film is based on some of Arcan's own writings, including her book Putain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneviève Rioux</span>

Geneviève Rioux is a Québécoise television host and actor in theatre, television and film.

Luce Guilbeault was a Canadian actress and director from Quebec. She was one of the leading figures of Quebec repertory theatre of the 1960s and one of the most-sought actresses of Quebec cinema in the 1970s. She received a Canadian Film Award in 1975 and the first Prix Iris from the National Film Board of Canada in 1991 for her life's work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Bissonnette</span> Canadian film director

Sophie Bissonnette is a Canadian director, editor, writer, and producer in the Quebec film industry. After graduating from Queen's University, she began creating films in Montreal. She released most of her documentary films in the 1980s. In these films, Bissonnette illustrated social and political justices, both of which were topics that were covered commonly by many Quebecois filmmakers. However, her films were distinguishable through exploring the women's perspective of male-dominated social engagements and incidents in French Canada.

Germaine Beaulieu is a Canadian poet and novelist, who has lived in Montreal since 1966. It was in 1977 that she began writing. She wrote the novel Sortie d'elle (s) mutante and fourteen anthologies such as, Repères du silence (2013) and Miroir du levant (2011). She also has published a series of postcards that illustrate poems from her collection, De l'Absence à volonté (1996). Many of her texts have appeared in various journals like Exit, Arcade, L'Estuaire, and La Nouvelle Barre du jour. Although her work is primarily in French, some of her writings have been translated into English. Some of these writings have been published in the journal Dandelion. Germaine Beaulieu is also a psychologist.

Brigitte Poupart is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She is most noted for her performance in the film Ravenous and for directing the 2012 film Over My Dead Body.

Jeanne Crépeau is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Montreal, Quebec, best known for her film Julie and Me .

Jeanne Leblanc is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec, whose full-length directoral debut Isla Blanca was released in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Roy</span> French-Austrian actress and screenwriter (born 1989)

Julia Roy is a French actress and screenwriter.

<i>Goddess of the Fireflies</i> 2020 Canadian drama film

Goddess of the Fireflies is a Canadian drama film, directed by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and released in 2020. An adaptation of the novel by Geneviève Pettersen, the film centres on the coming of age of Catherine, a teenage girl living in a small town in Quebec in the early 1990s.

Kelly Depeault is a Canadian actress from Sherbrooke, Quebec.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Denyse Benoit" (PDF). Curriculum Vitae. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  2. "Fonds Denyse Benoit." archivescanada.ca.réseau canadien d'information archivistique, n.d. Web. 17 March 2017
  3. Dasté, Catherine (1971). "Benoitdenise" (PDF). Cv Denise.
  4. Le Clère, René (19 April 1978). "Renseignement". Société des écrivains Canadiens.
  5. Favre, P (1 January 1977). "Une bonne une québécoise". La Nouvelle République.
  6. Poicard, Michel (June 1981). "Le Québec à Poitiers". Liberation.
  7. Gaudreault, Léonce (29 November 1986). "Une rêverie sereine sur le sens de la vie". Le Soleil.
  8. Charles, Henry (26 May 2013). "Le secret de Cyndia- Film Denyse Benoit". Film du Quebec. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  9. "100 ans de musique au cinéma". Éléphant mémoire du cinéma québécois. 17 September 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2016.