Filmmaker Claude Fournier dies at 91

< /p> UPDATE DAY

Filmmaker, producer and writer Claude Fournier died Thursday, at the age of 91, following heart problems. His brother Guy Fournier made the announcement in the Journal. 

The filmmaker spent the last days at the University of Montreal Hospital Center after suffering a heart attack during a trip to Martinique. He died surrounded by his loved ones.

“It is difficult to lose your twin brother, confided the author and screenwriter Guy Fournier, contacted Thursday, his voice tied with emotion.< /p>

“We spent our life together and we did a lot of the same job. Last summer, we ate together for our anniversary and I told him: I'm not sure we're going to be 92. He asked me: why are you saying that? I answered him: I don't know, it's a feeling that I have…

“So, I don't know if I'm going to surrender, but he doesn't will not be returned.”

With his accomplice in life and at work Marie-José Raymond.

Claude Fournier was on vacation in Martinique with his partner Marie-José Raymond and a couple of friends when his health began to deteriorate last week. 

“The day before his return, he felt very bad so his friend, who is a doctor, told him that he should perhaps go to the hospital in Fort-de-France. But Claude told him that he preferred to return to Montreal. And since his doctor friend was returning on the same flight as him, he told him that he was going to take care of him.”

When he returned to Montreal, Claude Fournier's doctor friend told him again advised to go to the hospital but the filmmaker refused, pleading that a night's sleep would put him back on his feet.

“But the next day (last Friday), Claude’s wife had him taken by ambulance to the hospital and it has deteriorated since. He died today (Thursday) following a massive haemorrhage”, testifies Guy Fournier who was able to go and greet him for the last time on Wednesday evening at the hospital.

A work abundant

His comedy: Two Golden Women, attracted some 2 million Quebecers.

A prolific filmmaker, Claude Fournier leaves behind him an abundant body of work. We owe him in particular the erotic comedy “Two Golden Women”, a cult film which enjoyed immense popular success (about two million spectators) when it was released in 1970.

He also directed ” The apple, the tail and the pips” (1974), “Cats in Boots” (1971), the comedy “I'm in!” (1997), starring Patrick Huard and Roy Dupuis, and the romantic drama “Je n'aime que toi” (2004).

The 1980s were particularly prosperous with the realization of several large-scale projects such as the TV series “Les Tisserands du Pouvoir” (1988) and the film “Bonheur d'occasion” (1983), an ambitious adaptation of Gabrielle Roy's novel .

“The film of which he was most proud was Bonheur d'occasion”, emphasizes Guy Fournier.

City councilor

Claude Fournier photographed at the funeral of Bernard Landry.

In November 2005, Claude Fournier was elected municipal councilor for Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, in the MRC de Rouville, in Montérégie. He won this election by 125 votes against 42 for his opponent.

At the same time, the filmmaker found himself at the heart of a controversy after the broadcast of his series “Félix Leclerc”. Radio-Canada programming director Mario Clément said the series was one of the worst he had seen on television; words that will lead him to court.

In 2008, the Superior Court of Quebec ruled in favor of the Fournier-Raymond couple and ordered the CBC to pay $200,000 to the plaintiffs who were claiming $4.3 million for defamation.

In 2009, he has signed an autobiography entitled “À force de vivre”.

The Elephant Project

The filmmaker largely contributed to the creation of Elephant : memory of Quebec cinema.

From 2008 to 2018, Claude Fournier and Marie-José Raymond directed the Éléphant project: memory of Quebec cinema, a philanthropic organization aimed at restoring and making available all of Quebec's film heritage. Together, they have supervised the restoration of more than 200 films.

“Claude Fournier has made our culture, our cinema, his passion and the center of his commitments. Without his contribution and that of Marie-José Raymond, Éléphant would not have seen the light of day. Condolences to his wife, his twin brother Guy Fournier and his relatives and friends,” Quebecor President and CEO Pierre-Karl Péladeau wrote Thursday evening on Twitter.

– With the collaboration of QMI Agency