<< Full translation from Voir (26 Feb 2009), extracts from Le Metro and Le Devoir. - viv >>

Four years after Les États-Unis d'Albert, the man who’s still known as the enfant terrible of Quebec cinema is making a strong comeback with Je me souviens, a fictitious story about trade unionism and the Duplessis era, about revolution and passion, filmed in black and white.

“Black and white is an aesthetic choice because it’s filmed in Abitibi,” explains André Forcier.  I wanted to make the black houses stand out against the background of white snow.  Also, I wanted to return to more social concerns.  While I’m against films that are historic or based on our history, I wanted to draw a dream-like portrait of the Great Darkness.  This metaphor could apply to modern-day Quebec … which is going nowhere.”

Is the filmmaker a pessimist? “Like his films and his characters, André is both light and dark,” suggests Roy Dupuis.  “As an actor I find that inspiring.  While I’m working on a character I like to draw on reality; with André, I just like to be around him, to listen to him telling me the story.  He’s very knowledgeable about the sidelights on history, and it’s often said that this is what constitutes the big picture.  André’s films are real poems.  No actor could turn down the opportunity of working with him.”

Well known for his head-on collisions with the industry, Forcier is disappointed to have been given a budget of $1.25 million, when according to him it deserved $4.5 million.  “I have been restricted to small budgets because I bash the system so much …. We have a state-controlled film industry where conventional producers are entitled to continuity bonuses.  Why is it that a 61 year-old director like myself who has contributed, along with 10 or 12 other filmmakers, to the establishment of our body of cinematographic work, isn’t entitled to a continuity bonus?”

Because of the constrained budget, Roy Dupuis’ character, Liam Hennessy, who should have been the main character, doesn’t appear till the third act, 9 years after the birth of Nemesis (Alice Morel-Michaud), fruit of a night of love between the widow Bombardier (Céline Bonnier) and Robert Sincennes (Pierre-Luc Brillant), father of the narrator/main character Louis (played by Renaud Pinet-Forcier on-screen and voiced by André Forcier).  His belated appearance is reminiscent of a Messiah or angel from heaven.

“As with Denys Arcand’s Barbarian Invasions, I didn’t read the start of the screenplay, which André told me about.  This helped my character, because I arrive in Abitibi without knowing too much about who everyone is.  I found out about Ireland, the situation at the time, and André told me a lot about it.  So I don’t see myself as a Messiah, just as an Irish revolutionary who comes to help little Nemesis,” he concludes.

.........

This time, forget the characters’ psychological motivation and historical research; Roy Dupuis and Céline Bonnier have gone for a more spontaneous approach.

In order to play Matilda, at first the effervescent wife then the vengeful widow and shameless mother, the actress leant on her personal knowledge and experiences.

“You accumulate all sorts of baggage in your life.  For this role, I had to open the “appropriate drawer”.

As for the role of exiled Irishman Liam Hennessy, this needed a more technical approach.

“Studying Gaelic required hours of listening,” says Roy Dupuis.  “Once it came naturally to me I drew inspiration from my way of speaking to adapt my accent into French.”

Collaborators of the director, the actors think that the roles created by him more or less correspond to their personalities.

“As Liam, I struggle to preserve diversity.  For several years my view of the world has grown a lot,” Roy suggests.

As for Céline, her response is spontaneous: “I’m always in pursuit of freedom, but never to the point of achieving the level of irresponsibility that Matilda does!”

........

The Gaelic tongue of the hero played by Roy Dupuis represents a threatening legacy echoing our own identity struggles.  But for the actor, who had to deliver long speeches in this language, the exercise was not an easy one. 

“I followed lessons on CD.  A woman showed me where to put the changes in pitch, but these sounds that were difficult to make, despite my good musical ear, seemed onomatopoeic.  The telephone conversation with the mother was long, and for me difficult.”