''The Bird Fancier'' (french: L'Homme aux oiseaux) is a Canadian short drama film, directed by

Bernard Devlin Bernard Devlin, (December 15, 1824 – February 7, 1880) was an Irish-born lawyer, counsel to the Abraham Lincoln administration of the United States Government during the most northerly engagement of the United States Civil War, Quebec-b ...

and Jean Palardy and released in 1952. Written by Roger Lemelin, the film tells the story of a man whose passion for

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s is bordering on obsession, distracting him from both his family life and his career.Gary Evans, ''In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989''.

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...

, 1991. . p. 22. The film's cast includes Camille Fournier, Annette Leclerc, René Constantineau and

Roger Lebel Roger Lebel (June 5, 1923 – June 18, 1994) was a Canadian actor. Career Label was born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Canada. A Québécois character actor, Roger Lebel began his career on stage and in radio. He started to show up movies in the ...

. The first French-language film made by the

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 ...

as an original production rather than a straight translation of an English-language film, the film faced some internal controversy on the grounds that as a film intended for Canada's francophone minority, its production was too expensive to justify given the relatively small size of its potential audience. To resolve the controversy, the filmmakers included some English-language dialogue in the film and marketed it as an opportunity for English Canadian audiences to learn about

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the 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 one of the thirtee ...

culture. Quebec film historian Pierre Véronneau later characterized the controversy as evidence of the NFB's "assimilationist" attitude toward French Canada; conversely, English Canadian film historian Gary Evans linked the issue to the political situation in Quebec, noting that the tight controls exerted on film distribution by the government of

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A conservative, nationalist, anti-Communist, anti-unionist and fervent Catholic, he and hi ...

left the NFB without a secure outlet for screening French-language productions until the launch of Télévision de Radio-Canada in 1952, and thus made their reluctance to invest in French-language production understandable. The film won the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Best Theatrical Short Film at the 5th Canadian Film Awards in 1953.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . pp. 21–24.

References

External links

* * 1952 films 1950s French-language films Best Theatrical Short Film Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners National Film Board of Canada short films 1952 short films Canadian black-and-white films 1952 drama films French-language Canadian films Canadian drama short films 1950s Canadian films {{1950s-Canada-film-stub