Quebec with Alzheimer’s | The Journal of Montreal

I have been in Paris for a few weeks.

Every time I go there, it hits me: the past is not the past in France.

He is present.

It is a part of everyday life.

He is remembered by passers-by at every street corner.

History in France is not hidden at the bottom of a drawer or permanently imprisoned in a museum.

She is alive. She breathes.

From yesterday to tomorrow

I stay at the same hotel every time I go to Paris.

What is written on the sign pasted on the facade of this hotel?

“Felix Leclerc (1914-1988) stayed here in 1951. He gave French singing its noble letters.”

It should be said that there are commemorative plaques every 20 meters in Paris.

“Here, Moliere died on February 17, 1673, after a performance Imagination disease.»

“Here lived Marguerite Duras.”

“Look, Voltaire’s had a beer and scratched the Smurf…”

There are many such signs, and one souvenir shop sells a humorous plaque that says, “Here, on March 22, 1765, nothing interesting happened…”.

But when I talk about the existence of the past, I’m not just talking about history with a capital H.

I am also talking about culture. with a large and small C.

Here’s how I was able to show my 15-year-old son several cinematic classics in restored versions: A clockwork orange And glowing, D Stanley Kubrick, Dog Day Afternoon, D Sidney Lumet Avec Al Pacino, The Wonderful Destiny of Amelie BoulineChristopher Nolan’s first films (which he wanted to see after “Crushed”). Oppenheimer)…

I could watch Italian, Swedish and German classics on the big screen.

Not in the film industry, not at all.

In modern cinemas, with big screen and big comfortable seats.

And to get in, you had to stand in line because there were so many young people wanting to buy tickets!

Because, yes, there, the past is not only of interest to those with white hair.

No memory

Meanwhile, in Quebec, we wonder if young people shouldn’t read the classics of literature.

As the question arose!

In October 2022, my girlfriend Sophie hosted Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe on QUB Radio. She asked which great Quebec director had died…

Seeing that the minister didn’t know the answer, he gave him a clue: “He staged Michael Tremblay’s greatest plays. sisters-in-law.»

Still no answer.

“Andre Brassard”, Sophie whispered to him.

The minister had never heard the name.

“It’s a generational question,” the culture minister explained his ignorance.

Ah, good.

It’s funny, I know who Emily Nelligan is and she died 20 years before I was born.

That is the memory of Quebec.

Maximum thirty years.

Then, good for oil changes.

I am the bulldozer.