| Wrestling | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Michel Brault Marcel Carrière Claude Fournier Claude Jutra |
| Produced by | Jacques Bobet |
Production company | |
Wrestling (Original French title: La lutte) is a 1961 documentary film about professional wrestling in Montreal. It was produced by Jacques Bobet for the French program branch of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). [1]
The film was co-directed by Michel Brault, Marcel Carrière, Claude Fournier and Claude Jutra, with Jutra and Fournier as cinematographers. (Due to confusion with the wrestling promotor Don Owen, film scholars have incorrectly credited the NFB's Don Owen as being the cinematographer or assistant director on Wrestling; the latter did not work on the film.)
Wrestling was shot in the Montreal Forum, where major bouts were staged, as well as wrestling parlors where would be wrestlers learned and practiced their craft. [2]
The filmmakers had intended to make a film exposing, in slow motion, the fakery of professional wrestling, until a chance encounter with French philosopher Roland Barthes changed their minds. Barthes was appalled by what they were planning to do, and spoke urgently about the beauty and social role of pro wrestling in the lives of ordinary people. Persuaded by Barthes, the filmmakers set out to make a film that captured the spectacle of the sport, without judging it. [3]
The film shows the wrestling arena to be a sort of modern-day shrine, with wrestling and its rituals taking the place of religion in the then-recently secularized Quebec. [4]
Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.
Claude Fournier was a Canadian film director, screenwriter, editor and cinematographer. He is one of the forerunners of the Cinema of Quebec. He was the twin brother of Guy Fournier.
Arthur Lipsett was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada. His short, avant-garde collage films, which he described as "neither underground nor conventional”, contain elements of narrative, documentary, experimental collage, and visual essay. His first film, Very Nice, Very Nice, was nominated for an Academy Award.
The Montreal International Film Festival was an annual Canadian film festival, which took place in Montreal, Quebec from 1960 to 1967.
Don Owen was a Canadian film director, writer and producer who spent most of his career with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). His films Nobody Waved Good-bye and The Ernie Game are regarded as two of the most significant English Canadian films of the 1960s.
Jean-Claude Labrecque, was a director and cinematographer who learned the basics of filmmaking at the National Film Board of Canada.
Michel Brault, OQ was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National Film Board of Canada in the 1960s. Brault was a pioneer of the hand-held camera aesthetic.
Rebels with a Camera is a 2006 documentary film by Quebec director Denys Desjardins produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The title is a reference to the film Rebel Without a Cause
Marcel Carrière is a Canadian film director and sound engineer.
John Spotton C.S.C. was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada.
September Five at Saint-Henri is a 1962 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentary film directed by Hubert Aquin about the first day of school for children and their families in the working class Montreal district of Saint-Henri. As Aquin was primarily a writer, he worked with a variety of cameramen. The NFB credits 11 on the film—Guy Borremans, Michel Brault, Georges Dufaux, Claude Fournier, Bernard Gosselin, Jean Roy, Claude Jutra, Bernard Devlin, Arthur Lipsett, Don Owen and Daniel Fournier. Caroline Zéau in her book L'Office national du film et le cinéma canadien (1939-2003): éloge de la frugalité states that as many as 28 filmmakers worked on the project, including the entire French production team, with Jacques Godbout reading narration.
Stanley Jackson (1914–1981) was a Canadian film director, producer, writer and narrator with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
The 26th Canadian Film Awards were held on October 12, 1975 to honour achievements in Canadian film. The ceremony was hosted by radio personality Peter Gzowski.
The 25th Canadian Film Awards were announced on October 12, 1973, to honour achievements in Canadian film.
The 24th Canadian Film Awards were held on October 3, 1972 to honour achievements in Canadian film.
The 23rd Canadian Film Awards were held on October 1, 1971 to honour achievements in Canadian film. The ceremony, which had been returned to banquet format, was hosted by actor Leslie Nielsen and broadcaster Charlotte Gobeil.
The 16th Canadian Film Awards were held on May 8, 1964 to honour achievements in Canadian film.
Jacques Giraldeau (1927-2015) was a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Quebec. He spent most of his career at the National Film Board of Canada and became known primarily for his films about the history of Quebec as seen through the eyes of its artists. He had a fondness for the avant-garde and many of his films are considered to be experimental.
Guy L. Coté PhD (1925–1994) was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada. He was also founding president of the Canadian Federation of Film Societies, and co-founder of the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Montreal World Film Festival.
Howard Jefferson Lewis is a Canadian screenwriter and film producer from Montreal, Quebec. He is most noted as the writer of the film Ordinary Magic, for which he was a Genie Award nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 15th Genie Awards in 1994.
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