{{Short description|Canadian actress, director and screenwriter}}
'''Denyse Benoit''' is a Canadian actress, director and screenwriter from Montreal, Quebec. She is mostly known for ''La Crue'' (1977), ''La belle Apparence'' (1979) and ''Le dernier Havre'' (1986).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://benoitdenise.com/cv-denise-benoit.pdf|title=Denyse Benoit|website=Curriculum Vitae|access-date=17 March 2016}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Denyse Benoit was born on June 28, 1949, in Sainte-Dorothée, Quebec, Canada. She studied painting and sculpture from 1966 to 1968 at the School of Fine Arts in Montreal. After finishing her two years of university studies in Quebec, she moved to Belgium to continue to broaden her education. She studied at the Institute des arts de diffusion in Brussels.<ref>"Fonds Denyse Benoit." archivescanada.ca.réseau canadien d'information archivistique, n.d. Web. 17 March 2017</ref> During those three years of studying she broadened her knowledge in multiple mediums associated to the arts. She took classes such as mass media, literature history, theater history, music, text manipulations, vocal expression, and text analysis.<ref name=":1" />
== After her studies == In January 1971, once she obtained her diploma, she started an internship with actress and stage director Catherine Dasté in Paris at the Green Apples Theatre. During the month, she assisted Dasté in the direction of her play ''Glomoël et les pommes de terres géantes''. In a paper she wrote, Catherine Dasté explains that Denyse Benoit was a hard working women and that she achieved her objectives with diligence and competence.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last = Dasté|first = Catherine|date = 1971|title = Benoitdenise|url = http://benoitdenise.com/cv-denise-benoit.pdf|journal = Cv Denise}}</ref> After this internship she decided to continue working as a stage director for a while in Europe. In Belgium she took part in shows designed for children as an actress, host and stage director.
== Career == Back in Quebec she taught theatre and did cultural animation in Gaspésie and Montreal.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Le Clère|first=René|date=19 April 1978 |title=Renseignement |journal=Société des écrivains Canadiens}}</ref> At that time she already had written multiple scenarios such as ''La rué verte'', ''Un instant près d’elle, Les sourires passagers, and Jeux de relations''. In 1973 she wrote and directed her first short film ''Coup d'œil blanc'' (1973) and in 1974 she wrote her second one ''Un instant près d’elle'' (1974).<ref name=":1" />
In 1976 she wrote and directed her third short film ''La Crue'' (1976), which takes place during the yearly spring flood in the Montreal suburbs of the same name. ''La Crue'' was created with the help of her friends and an extremely small budget. It was filmed during the weekends, which lasted a month, in which the flood took place that spring. The film won Best Scenario at the Festival de l'image de Montréal and was selected in many international festivals. In one French festival, her film was considered one of the best projections out of the ten that were presented.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Favre|first=P|date=1 January 1977|title=Une bonne une québécoise|journal=La Nouvelle République}}</ref>
In 1979 she directed, wrote and produced her first feature-length film ''La belle apparence'' (1979). Her film was selected in multiple festivals in Montreal and in France. At that time, French people did not know much about Quebec cinema and the film was an eye opening experience for them.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Poicard|first=Michel|date=June 1981|title=Le Québec à Poitiers|journal=Liberation}}</ref> In 1980 she wrote a script for an RTBF documentary named ''L’Étiquette'' (1980) that was directed by Manu Simon. In 1986 she wrote and directed her second feature-length film ''Le dernier havre'', which is an adaptation of Yves Thériault’s book of the same name. The film is about the last days of an old fisherman's life and was filmed in the Baies des chaleurs. It won the Public Prize of the seven-day festival of Hull-Ottawa cinema.<ref name=":1" /> It also won a special mention at the festival of the sea in Toulou, France. She started working on the film in 1979 and it was only in 1982 that the script was finally ready to be brought to the big screen. The writer Yves Thériault, unfortunately died before the film was finished and never saw the result.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gaudreault|first=Léonce|date=29 November 1986|title=Une rêverie sereine sur le sens de la vie |journal=Le Soleil}}</ref>
In 1986 she gave birth to her son and decided to concentrate her time on writing scripts. In 1991 she came back and wrote and directed a docudrama named ''Two Thieves'' (1991), which was about a Montreal sculptor and was presented on CBC Toronto. In 2003 to 2004 she wrote and directed a feature-length drama film named ''Le Secret de Cyndia,'' which was produced by Daniel Morin in Video format with an extremely low budget.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmsquebec.com/films/secret-de-cyndia-denyse-benoit/|title=Le secret de Cyndia- Film Denyse Benoit|last=Charles|first=Henry|date=26 May 2013|website=Film du Quebec|access-date=17 March 2016}}</ref> During this time she also co-wrote another feature-length film named ''Station Nord'', a Christmas story.<ref name=":1" />
== After career == From 2005 to 2006 she stopped making movies and concentrated her work on writing literature for adults and for children. She wrote "Le lieu fit", "Olivia du Tarn", "Les contes de l'enfant aux tissous". She also started drawing illustrations for books and in 2009 she built her own studio where she concentrates her time on doing artistic work.<ref name=":1" /> Like she said in an interview, plastic arts are her favourite past-time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://elephantcinema.quebec/video/dossiers-exclusifs/100-ans-de-musique-au-cinema/1213651014001/denyse-benoit/1845615731001/page/2 |title=100 ans de musique au cinéma|date=17 September 2012|website=Éléphant mémoire du cinéma québécois|access-date=17 March 2016}}</ref>
== Important position == From 1976 to 1990 she was the vice-president and treasurer of the Quebec directors association.<ref name=":1" />
== Filmography == '''Short film''' {| class="wikitable" !Year !Title !Director !Writer !Prize |- |1973 |''Coup d'oeil blanc'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | |- |1974 |''Un Instant près d'elle'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | |- |1976 |''La Crue'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |Prize of the best scenario at the Montreal festival of Images Selected in multiple international festivals |}
'''Feature film''' {| class="wikitable" |- !Year !Title !Director !Writer !Prize |- |1979 |''A Beautiful Facade (La belle apparence)'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | |- |1980 |''L'étiquette'' |{{no}} |{{yes}} | |- |1986 |''Le dernier havre'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} |Public Prize at the seven-day festival of Hull-Ottawa cinema |- |1991 |''Two Thieves'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | |- |rowspan=2|2002 |''Le Secret de Cyndia'' |{{yes}} |{{yes}} | |- |''North Station (Station Nord)'' |{{no}} |{{yes}} | |}
==References== <references />
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0072298}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit, Denyse}} Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian film actresses Category:Film directors from Quebec Category:Canadian women screenwriters Category:Canadian women film directors Category:Actresses from Quebec Category:Writers from Laval, Quebec Category:French-language Canadian screenwriters Category:Screenwriters from Quebec