Denis Villeneuve pays tribute to Jean-Marc Vallée: “Hey old man, what made you leave so early? How must I forget these lonesome tears in my eyes? As you already told me: go out there and shine, crazy diamond. I love you, my friend.” pic.twitter.com/vQgjrrql56
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) December 27, 2021
The American obituaries for Jean-Marc Vallée acknowledge his recent U.S. TV and film work. Vallée was known for his American TV work as a director on Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He also directed American films such as The Young Victoria, Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, and Demolition.
A proper obituary for such a great filmmaker is to point out 2 rather amazing films where he was a writer and director: C.R.A.Z.Y. and Cafe de Flore. Of the 9 full-length films Vallée directed, these were the only 2 where he was a writer.
C.R.A.Z.Y. was his breakthrough film. Vallée co-wrote the film with François Boulay. The story was a coming of age film with 5 brothers, one of whom was gay. The initials were the first names of the brothers with Zac being the 4th of 5 brothers. Vallée brilliantly incorporated music into this film like it was a fellow co-star.
The 2005 film won 11 Genie Awards and 13 Jutra Awards in the spring of 2006. C.R.A.Z.Y. was the Best Canadian Film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was the Canadian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated. In 2015, C.R.A.Z.Y. placed number 8 on the Top 10 Canadian films of all time.
Cafe de Flore was 2 films in one that are connected with love: a 1960s France setting with a developmentally challenged young boy and his mother and a modern Montréal DJ and his wife.
The film did get 13 Genie Awards nominations and 3 wins, either acting or behind the scenes.
Trying to find the quintessential Canadian film
Canadian film review: Café de Flore
Then Vallée turned his attention down south, only doing directing. Dallas Buyers Club did get Academy Awards for Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. Vallée did get an Oscars nomination for Best Film Editing under his alias, John Mac McMurphy.
Like his fellow French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, we knew Vallée wasn't going back to Quebec to create films. Villeneuve finally got back to writing, well, sort of. Vallée could have lived 20 more years and he wasn't going to use those writing muscles again.
Still, he was contributing to "natural filmmaking" as many called his style. We could imagine what he would have done for the last decade if he wrote those stories that were in his head.
My path down the TIFF Top 10 Canadian films of all time
Learning a lot from lists of top all-time Canadian films
Looking back at Canada's Oscars entries for international films
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
We recognize that finding Vallée's American work is easier to find on both side of the border. These 2 films are worth the hard work to find them. There should be more of these works but Vallée ran his career the way he wanted. Shine on you, crazy diamond.
Twitter capture: @filmupdates
photo credit: C.R.A.Z.Y. film
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