The first Quebec film to have been shot in stereo over 50 years ago, the documentary The Unfinished Infonia will be entitled to a second life thanks to the restoration work carried out by the organization Elephant: memory of Quebec cinema.
The new restored version of this film directed by Roger Frappier in 1972 will be presented Monday evening at the Cinémathèque québécoise. Mr. Frappier, who will attend the screening, is delighted to be able to share with the public his work, which has been inaccessible for many years.
“We shot this film 50 years ago, which does not make me any younger! “laughs the 77-year-old producer who was nominated for an Oscar last year for the film The power of the dog (The Power of the Dog), by director Jane Campion.
“I really appreciate the work of Elephant and its general manager Dominique Dugas. The Unfinished Infonia had been in limbo for years. It’s great to be able to give it new life half a century later! »
Musical experience
As its title suggests, The Unfinished Infonia is interested in the creative process of L’Infonie, a poetic-musical group led by musician Walter Boudreau and poet and singer Raoul Duguay from 1967 to 1974. Roger Frappier had the idea of shooting the film in stereophony in order to reproduce “the sound spatialization of long musical tracks” of the collective.
“It was crazy to do that in the past but it represents the era well, explains Mr. Frappier. When the film was released in 1974, only the Imperial Cinema was equipped to screen it in stereophony. We had presented him at the Imperial and it was marvellous. But after that, in the other rooms, it was in mono and it was catastrophic! »
The restoration work was done from one of the rare 35mm copies of the film that had been kept at the Cinémathèque québécoise. This was sent to a laboratory in Los Angeles to transplant the four magnetic tracks. “They put it all back together and the sound is fabulous,” says Roger Frappier.
The Unfinished Infonia was Roger Frappier’s second feature film as a director, after The Great Ordinary Movie, released in 1971. Mr. Frappier later became a producer. We owe him several outstanding Quebec films of the last 40 years, including The Decline of the American Empire (by Denys Arcand), A zoo at night (by Jean-Claude Lauzon) and The great seduction (by Jean-Francois Pouliot).