Jean Lapointe… the end of an era

They were full of emotion, the private funeral of Jean Lapointe, Saturday morning. I couldn’t keep my eyes dry as her children and friends paid tribute to her, remembering her good and bad times.

Beyond the passing of Jean Lapointe, it was the end of an era that brought tears to my eyes.

• Listen to an interview with Jean-Marie Lapointe on The Sophie Durocher Show QUB-Radio :

I remember

I was touched by the testimony of one of Jean Lapointe’s daughters, Marie-Josie, who told the bottom line of the family reconciliation story more than many TV series.

I was delighted to hear Francois Legault quote a famous scene from the series
Duplessis In this Jean Lapoint enthusiastically took to the defense of the Quebecers (especially Jean Chrétien who sat a few meters in front of the Prime Minister).

I was inspired by the exact words of Jean-Marie Lapointe, who described how his father’s vulnerability was an example.

Just one time: I also liked the priest’s speech! Jean Lapointe needed a lot to appreciate the word of a man of the Church.

Actor Benoit Prior delivered such an intelligent speech that I thought he should write more often.

When he was very young, he said, his parents took him to see performances by Quebec artists from all walks of life, including Jean Lapointe.

Prior said that one must “consume” culture in order to develop “a dependency,” to use a vocabulary that Jean Lapointe could understand.

This word really appeals to me.

What are we doing today to “enslave” our own children to Quebec culture? Do we express them enough in our films, our songs, our paintings, our artists?

In his elegantly written text, Benoît Prior envisioned the group that would welcome Jean Lapointe into heaven: Michel Dissaire, Jerome Lemay, Olivier Guimond, Félix Leclerc, La Pune and others.

I heard Benoit Prior read this list and I wondered how many of these names resonated with the younger me.

I was sitting in a pew in the church next to my friend Jean-Pierre Ferland. I wondered how many “20-somethings” today know the work of “Little King”.

Memory duty

Anne-Elizabeth Lapointe stunned the entire audience by singing a cappella Lament for brotherIt was sung by Jean Lapointe orders By Michael Brault.

It’s impossible not to shudder when you hear the finale “False masters gone, here’s freedom! / Fighting false masters forever! “.

I wonder why the young reporter covering the funeral for Radio-Canada simply said: “This song was sung by Jean Lapointe in one of his movie roles.”

One of his movie roles?

His singing in the forgotten movie is still a little bit more amazing!

It’s a song of freedom, of rebellion, that he sings behind the bars of his cell in his role as the imprisoned “French Canadian” Clermont Boudreau, in a major film in our cinematography dealing with the arbitrary arrest of hundreds of innocent citizens. In October 1970!

A little historical reminder, the brothel!

If even the national broadcaster doesn’t do its duty to remember, who will?