Marc-André Lussier, a longtime journalist and film critic at La Presse, passed away last Friday at the age of 63.
According to the newspaper, which announced Lussier's death on Monday afternoon, he had recently undergone heart surgery and was found dead in his home on Friday.
Lussier had been with La Presse since 1978, starting in the advertising department. He became a journalist in 1995 and moved to the arts section five years later.
Over the past 20 years, he has attended the Cannes Film Festival 17 times and several other film festivals, and interviewed hundreds of artists.
The cinephile has also been a columnist on Radio-Canada radio, notably on the programs C'est bien meilleur le matin and Christiane Charette.
In addition to eight years at the helm of CIBL's Projection spéciale"program, he hosted the Cinéma vérité capsules on ARTV and co-hosted Télé-Québec's À l'affiche cette semaine program. He also contributed to the programs Culture Club and Plus on est de fous, plus on lit, on Ici Première.
In addition to writing hundreds of columns on his passion for cinema, he is the author of Mon cinéma: 350 films à voir ou à revoir and Le meilleur de mon cinéma: les 300 films incontournables des 30 dernières années, both published by Éditions La Presse, as well as co-author of René-Homier Roy's biography, Moi, published by Leméac, and co-author, with his colleague Marc Cassivi, of Cannes au XXIe, published by Éditions Somme Toute.
Among other anecdotes, he was a semi-finalist at the Festival de la chanson de Granby in the 1980s, according to his colleague André Duchesne.
"To his family, friends, colleagues and all those who had the honour and happiness of working with him, La Presse offers its sympathies," read a post from the newspaper announcing his death.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 3, 2023.
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This report was written with the financial assistance of the Meta Fellowship and The Canadian Press for news.
