Testament: Denys Arcand's 'Médius' (Middle Finger) to All Sides of the PC Phenomenon

By Chris Knight

Rating: A

Since watching Denys Arcand’s trenchant new film Testament, I’m torn between wanting to applaud him for crafting a heartfelt drama about longing and regret – and wanting to applaud him for raising an octogenarian, francophone “médius” (middle finger) to this century’s increasingly stringent, strident notions of political correctness.

But either way, I’m on my feet.

Remy Girard in Testament

Rémy Girard stars as Jean-Michel Bouchard, a former archivist and academic living out his retirement in the Parizeau-Duplessis seniors’ home. Yes, the name is a dark joke, a reference to an odious Quebec premier who oversaw the human rights abuses of the “Duplessis Orphans,” and another who, on his final night in office, drunkenly blamed the outcome of the 1995 sovereignty referendum on “money and the ethnic vote.”

No one in the film remarks on the name, however. Instead, what has people in an uproar is a fresco inside the home, a wall-sized mural depicting explorer Jacques Cartier meeting a delegation of First Nations people. And the uproarious folk in question are a group of white anglophones who have taken it upon themselves to camp out in front of the home and demand the removal of the offending image.

To be clear, Arcand isn’t taking sides in the debate, or at least not openly. No one escapes his satiric scalpel in this cutting comedy.

Not the youthful protestors, well-meaning but also stubborn and petulant. (Their next goal is to picket a performance of The Good Person of Szechwan, a play about a Chinese woman, written by a German man!) Not the equally angry counter-protestors who want to protect “Quebec culture,” many of them so doddering they’re held up by canes and walkers. And not the politicians, who make speeches and give orders and hope the whole affair will just go away.

In fact, one of the few times someone weighs in directly on the artistic merit of the art in question is when two presumably uneducated house painters are hired to cover up the mural. (Don’t think I’ve ever seen history so literally whitewashed as in this scene.)

“Breaks my heart,” one of them remarks. “People had talent back then. Look at the quality of the orange.” The other agrees: “Orange is hard.”

For his part, Jean-Michel mostly steers clear of the controversy, although he does have some opinions, mostly about getting old and feeling out of touch. “The interests and passions of my contemporaries no longer interest me,” he says in one of his voiceovers. “I can’t relate to their music, their fashions, their social networks, their tattoos.” An inner-monologue pause, then: “What’s with everyone getting tattoos?”

But he’s also a kind and gentle soul, taking an interest in the world around him and the people in it more than he’d care to admit.

In particular, he has a soft spot for Suzanne Francoeur (Sophie Lorain), the home’s director, who is doing her best to balance the demands of the protestors and follow the ambiguous commands of the Health and Social Services Minister (Caroline Néron) and the Deputy Minister of Culture. The latter is played here by Robert Lepage, who several years ago had two of his plays cancelled - literally, not figuratively - on charges of cultural appropriation, although one of them was subsequently remounted.

Arcand doesn’t shy away from being similarly tarred, and recently delivered this rebuke on Radio-Canada’s “Tout le monde en parle” to the question of whether he should have consulted First Nations people before filming:

“I do not believe in consultations. It’s now the latest trend when we have to talk about Indigenous people or whatever. We’re always supposed to consult. I’m completely opposed to this. I think the creative process is an absolutely personal act that comes from deep within ourselves.

“It’s like if you asked Shakespeare if he went to Italy to ask the Capulets and Montagues: Do they agree with his interpretation of Romeo & Juliet?” This was delivered in French, after which Arcand switched to English to add a Germanic expletive followed by the word “off.”

Testament has performed well in cinemas in Quebec, and will probably do well in France when it opens there. English Canada, with its differing comedic sensibilities, may be less receptive. But my guess is that it will split along generational lines. Well-educated twentysomethings may be outraged. Those who were well-educated twentysomethings 20 years or more ago may not be.

I advise both groups to pay attention to the film’s clever coda, a kind of “this too shall pass” moment that invites us all to take a deep breath and consider what really matters in the world.

Testament. Directed by Denys Arcand. Starring Rémy Girard, and Sophie Lorain. Opens in theatres Friday, Nov. 10.