Michel Brault
A Canadian cinematographer who liberated the camera, pioneering a visceral, handheld style that defined the truth-telling energy of direct cinema.
1928–2013 (age 85)·Canadian filmmaker·Birthday: June 25·The Silent Generation
Biography
Michel Brault didn't just shoot films; he reinvented how the camera could move through the world. In the 1950s and 60s, working with the National Film Board of Canada's French unit, he became the technical and philosophical engine of direct cinema, Quebec's answer to cinéma vérité. He strapped gyroscopes to cameras, shot from wheelchairs and cars, and turned the handheld shot from a shaky necessity into an art form of intimate, urgent observation. His groundbreaking work on films like 'Pour la suite du monde' and 'Les Raquetteurs' captured everyday life with unprecedented fluidity and presence. Later, as a director, he brought that same textured realism to landmark features like 'Les Ordres.' Brault's innovations gave filmmakers a new grammar of authenticity, influencing generations of documentarians and narrative directors worldwide.
The Silent Generation
1928–1945
Born between the Depression and the end of WWII. Too young to fight, old enough to remember. They became the conformist middle managers of the 1950s — and the civil rights leaders who quietly dismantled Jim Crow.
Michel was born in 1928, placing them squarely in The Silent Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Michel Was Born
The biggest hits of 1928
#1 Movie
The Singing Fool
Best Picture
Wings
Michel's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1928Born
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin; Mickey Mouse debuts
President: Calvin Coolidge"Ol' Man River" — Paul WhitemanBest Picture: Wings
1933Started school
FDR's New Deal launches; Prohibition ends
Gas: $0.18/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stormy Weather" — Ethel WatersBest Picture: Cavalcade
1941Became a teenager
Pearl Harbor attack brings the US into WWII
Gas: $0.19/galHome: $3,060Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Chattanooga Choo Choo" — Glenn MillerBest Picture: How Green Was My Valley
1944Could drive
D-Day: Allied forces land at Normandy
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $3,400Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Swinging on a Star" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Going My Way
1946Could vote
United Nations holds its first General Assembly
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $5,150Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Prisoner of Love" — Perry ComoBest Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
1949Turned 21
NATO founded; Mao proclaims the People's Republic of China
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,450Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Riders in the Sky" — Vaughn MonroeBest Picture: All the King's Men
1958Turned 30
NASA founded
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Volare" — Domenico ModugnoBest Picture: Gigi
1968Turned 40
Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinated
Gas: $0.34/galHome: $14,950Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Hey Jude" — The BeatlesBest Picture: Oliver!
1978Turned 50
First test-tube baby born
Gas: $0.63/galHome: $35,300Min wage: $2.65/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Shadow Dancing" — Andy GibbBest Picture: The Deer Hunter
1988Turned 60
Pan Am Flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $74,800Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Faith" — George MichaelBest Picture: Rain Man
1998Turned 70
Google founded; Clinton impeachment
Gas: $1.06/galHome: $107,300Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Too Close" — NextBest Picture: Shakespeare in Love
2008Turned 80
Barack Obama elected first Black US president; financial crisis
Gas: $3.27/galHome: $153,100Min wage: $6.55/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Low" — Flo RidaBest Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
2013Died at 85
Edward Snowden reveals NSA surveillance programs
Gas: $3.53/galHome: $152,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Thrift Shop" — Macklemore & Ryan LewisBest Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Key Achievements
- Pioneered the use of handheld, sync-sound cinematography in documentary, revolutionizing the direct cinema movement in Canada.
- Won the Best Director award at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival for his feature film 'Les Ordres' about the 1970 October Crisis.
- Served as the director of photography on Claude Jutra's seminal film 'Mon oncle Antoine,' a landmark of Quebec cinema.
Did You Know?
He developed a custom gyroscopic camera stabilizer in the late 1950s, years before the invention of the Steadicam.
He filmed the iconic crowd scenes for Norman Jewison's musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' (1973).
He was a founding member of the French filmmakers' cooperative 'Les Films de l'Astrée' in Montreal.
“The camera is not an instrument that you simply point; it is an eye that you lend to the viewer.”
