Mon ami Michel
At the age of 68, filmmaker Michel Moreau, who dedicated most of his work to the disabled and marginalized, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. To document and share his experience, he asked his filmmaker friend, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, to record the progression of his illness. Lefebvre agreed and filmed him over four years, working alone with a small Hi-8 camera.
| Director | Jean Pierre Lefebvre |
| Actors | Richard Brouillette, Richard Brouillette |
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Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1998, documentarian Michel Moreau asked his friend Jean Pierre Lefebvre to film him as a testament to his condition. As his perceptions gradually refract into another dimension, Lefebvre captures an intimate renewal of Moreau's connection to the world and to others. Behind the filmmaker Moreau, candidly joyful to see "his buddy" bring a camera back into his daily life, emerges a little-known painter whose profound work increasingly reveals the essence of the man—a vivid portrait of a soul laid bare through the very fading of his existence. Supported and cared for with unwavering attention and devotion by his wife Edith (to whom Lefebvre fittingly dedicates the film as if to rename it: "To Edith – The friend of my friend Michel"), it is she and their love that Moreau, despite his apparent decline, seems to have mischievously anticipated as the true focus of this portrait. Through the tacit complicity of his comrade, the film offers a tender and heartrending glimpse into the quiet tragedy of their mutual affection.
Simon Galiero
Director, screenwriter and editor
of the documentary journal Communs.site
-
Français
1h37
Language: Français
- Année 2004
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 97
- Producteur Cinak
- Langue French
- Résumé court An intimate and moving portrait of artist Michel Moreau, living with Alzheimer's disease, captured with simplicity and humanity by his friend Jean-Pierre Lefebvre.
- Ordre 1
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1998, documentarian Michel Moreau asked his friend Jean Pierre Lefebvre to film him as a testament to his condition. As his perceptions gradually refract into another dimension, Lefebvre captures an intimate renewal of Moreau's connection to the world and to others. Behind the filmmaker Moreau, candidly joyful to see "his buddy" bring a camera back into his daily life, emerges a little-known painter whose profound work increasingly reveals the essence of the man—a vivid portrait of a soul laid bare through the very fading of his existence. Supported and cared for with unwavering attention and devotion by his wife Edith (to whom Lefebvre fittingly dedicates the film as if to rename it: "To Edith – The friend of my friend Michel"), it is she and their love that Moreau, despite his apparent decline, seems to have mischievously anticipated as the true focus of this portrait. Through the tacit complicity of his comrade, the film offers a tender and heartrending glimpse into the quiet tragedy of their mutual affection.
Simon Galiero
Director, screenwriter and editor
of the documentary journal Communs.site
-
Français
Duration: 1h37Language: Français1h37
- Année 2004
- Pays Quebec
- Durée 97
- Producteur Cinak
- Langue French
- Résumé court An intimate and moving portrait of artist Michel Moreau, living with Alzheimer's disease, captured with simplicity and humanity by his friend Jean-Pierre Lefebvre.
- Ordre 1
