Films on art and/or art on film: Jacques Giraldeau's cinematic vision of the 1960s

Films on art have provided audiences with new ways of apprehending art since the early part of the twentieth century. Yet, the film on art did not remain a strictly didactic tool since there have always been film directors to blur the boundary between a film on art and an art film. Jacques Giraldeau is one of these film directors. This thesis looks at three of Giraldeau's films: La forme des choses, Les fleurs c'est pour Rosemont and Bozarts. The first film is an abstract look at the works shown at the first international sculpture symposium in 1964 in Montreal. It is a deliberate collage of images of the sculptures interspersed with images of the landscape in which they were exposed. The second film is a bleak look at an architectural project started by a group of recent university graduates to revamp an alleyway in an impoverished district of Montreal. The film showcases the residents's disillusionment and frustration with their plight. It provides ground for a discussion on class disenfranchisement. The last film is a survey of the art scene in Quebec in the late 1960s. It takes note of the various actors's opinions, such as gallery owners, museum directors, art critics and artists. Coupled with the views of the lay public and their incomprehension of the hermetic art world.