''Pour la suite du monde'' (also known as ''For Those Who Will Follow''; ''Of Whales, the Moon, and Men'', or ''The Moontrap'' in English) is a 1963 Canadian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Michel Brault, Marcel Carrière and Pierre Perrault. It was entered into the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis

The film is a work of ethnofiction. It shows life in a small isolated community, when the influence of the Catholic Church in Quebec was still strong. For centuries the inhabitants of Ile-aux-Coudres, a small island in the St. Lawrence River, trapped beluga whales by sinking a

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

of saplings into the offshore mud at low tide. After 1920, the practice was abandoned. In 1962, a team of

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

filmmakers led by director Perrault and cinematographer Brault arrived on the island to make a cinéma-vérité documentary about the people and their isolated life. They encouraged the islanders to revive the practice of beluga fishing. The live animal they caught was then driven on a truck to an aquarium in New York City. The film also shows the daily life of the islanders, and their celebrations, such as the festival at mid-Lent (''mi-carême'').

Cast

* Léopold Tremblay as Marchand and president of the new beluga fishing co. * Alexis Tremblay as Cultivateur et politicien * Abel Harvey as Capitaine et maître de pêche * Louis Harvey as Cultivateur et chantre d'église * Joachim Harvey as Capitaine du Nord de l'Île *

Stanley Jackson Sir Francis Stanley Jackson Jackson's obituary in the 1948 ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack''. This gives his full name as ''Francis'' Stanley Jackson, whereas Cricinfo and CricketArchive both give his full name as ''Frank'' Stanley Jackson. This ...

as Narrator

Reception

The resulting film was hugely popular in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, and today is recognized as a classic of Canadian cinema. ''Pour la suite du monde'' has been consistently ranked by critics as one of the best ever made and it represents a major development in the Direct Cinema movement, moving away from simple observation to a more immediate participation and a great emphasis on the words of the people portrayed. ''Pour la suite du monde'' was the first Quebec film shown at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

. It received a Special Award and was named Film of the Year at the 1964 Canadian Film Awards. In 1984 the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

ranked the film eighth in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time. The film was followed by two more installments in Perrault's "Île-aux-Coudres Trilogy", '' The Times That Are (Le règne du jour)'' and '' The River Schooners (Les voitures d'eau)''. Quebecois filmmaker

Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve (; born October 3, 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) for Best Direction, winning for '' Maelström'' in 2001, '' Polytechnique'' in 2009, '' Incendie ...

declares that Perrault's "Île-aux-Coudres Trilogy" is "amongst the most beautiful films he has ever seen". It remains a major source of inspiration and influence for him.

Legacy

Perrault made two other films about the inhabitants of L'Isle-aux-Coudres, '' The Times That Are'' and Les Voitures d'eau''.

Alternate English versions and titles

The film has been screened in various versions and with no less than four English-language titles. At its 1963 Cannes premiere, it was billed as ''For Those Who Will Follow''. The NFB has also promoted the film in English as ''Of Whales, the Moon and Men'' or ''The Moontrap'', depending upon whether it was the 105 minute or 84 minute version, respectively. The release of a 2007 "Île-aux-Coudres Trilogy" DVD trilogy also translates the film title as ''For the Ones to Come.'' The film is commonly referred to as simply ''Pour la suite du monde'' in both French and English.

References

Works cited

External links

*
Watch ''Pour la suite du monde'' at NFB.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pour La Suite Du Monde 1963 films 1963 documentary films 1960s French-language films Canadian black-and-white films Canadian docufiction films Ethnofiction films Films about whaling Films directed by Michel Brault Films directed by Pierre Perrault Films set in Quebec National Film Board of Canada documentaries Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Films shot in Quebec Films directed by Marcel Carrière Whaling in Canada French-language Canadian films 1960s Canadian films