Theatre audiences have been debating what really led Yves to kill his lover Claude during a moment of unrelenting passion ever since René- Daniel Dubois' Being at Home with Claude ws first staged in Montreal in 1985.
"People will have different interpretations, but all I tried to do was show the passion and love that Yves had for this guy, and the importance that moment will have on the rest of his life," says Roy Dupuis, who plays Yves in jean Beaudin's stylish and riveting screen adaptation of the play which received rave notices in New York, Toronto, Amsterdam and London (where Bruce Beresford was so impressed with Lothaire Bluteau's performance as Yves he offered him the lead in Black Robe).
Most of Being At Home's action takes place in a library of the Palais de Justice, where Yves (Dupuis) is being questioned by a police inspector (veteran actor Jacque Godin). There are frequent, beautifully shot black and white flashbacks which show the evolution of Yves and Claude's relationship, and the events which led to the murder. The film is fast-paced, emotionally charged and, perhaps ironically, incredibly romantic.
It is also an excellent example of a successful screen adaptation of a play. Surprisingly, despite Quebec's prolific history in theatre, Being at Home is one of the few plays to make it to the big screen, except Tit-Coq in 1952, Beuax Dimanches in 1971, Il hait une fois dans l'Est in 1973 and a handfull of others. Beaudin's film will probably be considered the most impressive.
At the moment, Dupuis is Quebec's hottest young actor. Since 1986, he has appeared in numerous plays (including Romeo and Juliet, Le Chien and Harold and Maude) and in films like Dans le ventre du dragon, Comment faire l'amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer, and Sortie 234. Yet it was last year's phenomenal success of the television series Les filles de Caleb which made him a star and turn his trips to the local dépanneurs into autograph sessions. The 20-part series boasted record-breaking audiences of over 3 million per episode, and for Dupuis there has been no turning back.
Dupuis' presence in Being at Home with Claude will likely introduce a new audience to the play, and many may be surprised to see him so believable in a role. Yves, after all, comes from a different world entirely than Ovila in Caleb and the role is light years beyond Dupuis' present small-screen incarnation as ambitious journalist Michael Gagné in the popular but formulaic Scoop.
"Roles like Yves are a gift - they permit you to surpass yourself," says the 28-year-old actor at a trendy St-Denis restaurant. "I was pleased with the results when I saw the completed film. During filming, I wasn't planning my moves precisely, I just wanted to feel the part, to be it. I surprised myself. At the end, I thought, 'fuck, who was I? Where did that come from?' I'm happy with the movie."
Dupuis has every reason to be. Being at Home is the story of a street hustler who makes no excuses for peddling his ass for a living. He says he's addicted to sex. He inadvertently falls in love with one of his tricks, Claude, a literate intellectual from a good family who comes to represent an ideal for Yves. After years on a perpetual quest for carnal fulfillment that only thinly masks his true desire to fill an unnamed void in his life, Yves finds in Claude the other half he feels makes him whole. Through the sex act he lives out his suddenly unleashed desire to be someone else, someone like Claude. The force of such previously unacknowledged psychic conflicts climaxes at the very moment when Yves finally feels fused, body and mine, with Claude; he kills him.
The multi-layered motivations behind Yves' act is at the heart of the play's complexity. Was it simply, as Yves suggests, an attempt to preserve a moment of such rarefied beauty and passion that neither could know again? If so, why didn't Yves commit suicide afterwards? Or was it that Yves, realizing that he could never fully become the ideal he saw in Claude, killed his 'other' in an unconscious attempt to exchange identities and never again have that vision of unattainable perfection taunting him? The idea of character fusion is so strong, in fact, that the film's producers at first considered having Dupuis play both parts.
Though Being at Home with Claude does not leave the viewer with loose ends by presenting a psychologically elaborate situation, it allows for viewer involvement. And though a political message may be inferred (the original play, which the author wrote in 10 days during a trip to New York, is set during Expo '67; the murder occurs on Canada Day; Claude is an ardent separatist; a Quebec flag hangs in Yves' apartment), this is not emphasized in the film, giving ample space for the denouement.
Despite the story's inherent merits, with passages of mesmerizing beauty, Dupuis' natural performance stands as the film's centrepeice. He partially credits Beaudin, who also directed the Filles de Caleb series, for the chemistry we see on screen.
From Tense to Limp
A highly physical actor, Dupuis changes his posture from the taut swagger near the beginning of the film - a somatic expression of inner tension - to a limpness near the end, which visually crystallizes the psychic relief his self revelation has brought. At some points, you're not sure if Dupuis is about to explode in anger or break down crying. Being emotional on screen is the aspect of acting that appeals most to Dupuis.
"It was exhausting to hold in such tensions, sometimes for up to 12 hours a days," he says, "but I really love to give myself to the camera. It can be dangerous, but that's probably what I like about it. We all live for sensation."
The role of a gay hustler may not seem an obvious one for a Quebec Tv heartthrob, but Duipuis' ambitious and introspective nature thirsts for the kind of acting experience TV cannot offer. "For this role, I emerged myself in the character's world before shooting." he says."I went up to Mount Royal, hung around the gay village, and felt out the world of the male prostitute. Then I tried to occupy the space and rhythm of the world, and combine that with the words and musicality of the play. Of course, going through that world so much, there was some self-questioning - could I be homosexual? I asked myself. But it just didn't happen. I've for a long time thought that falling in love with a woman can't be that different than loving a man, though I understand that homosexuality is more complicated than that."
If his approach to acting sounds like it's out of the Method School, it's no coincidence. Dupuis lists Brando first on his list of favourite actors, along with Tim Robbins and James Spader. "They make the experience of watching them intimate," he says, "and that's what interests me."
Other qualities which link him with Method actors is a tendency towards pensive introspection and a certain emotional susceptibility, which, far from being stumbling blocks, have proven themselves as valuable acting tools when emotional expression is aimed for.
"Generally, I'm close to myself and I try to figure out who I am," he says. "I try to stop thinking about what's going on around me and focus my energy on what's going on inside, because I don't think we can do anything else but be present.
"I don't know who I am," he laughs finally. "I still find it hard to talk about myself. There are so many contradictory elements to each of us, and I still haven't found all the answers. I know I don't like black/white kind of thinking. I like to see, to feel... to touch, and be touched."
Though Being at Home with Claude will do much for Dupuis' reputation, it's unclear how long it will take to cast off whatever baggage that comes from the kind of fame that being on the covers of innumerable TV Hebdos brings. "the success has had its good and bad points," asserts Dupuis. "though I don't think about it when I'm working, there is always this big eye watching you, people listening to you. Sometimes you don't mind, other times you just want to stay home."
Dupuis has no concrete plans for the future, other than to take a two month quiet break in the country. He's also interested in acting outside the limited Quebec market, if the projects are worthy. Still, the Abitibi native, a Montreal resident since 1977, has no desire to move far away. We'll see him in Entangled, an English co-production with France and the US, and he may resurface in the second series of Les filles de Caleb, which begins shooting this summer.
His favourite roles, however, will be ones which allow for a certain intimacy. "That's why I like theater so much," he says. "It's a more concentrated experience, allowing you to move away from yourself. In the last year or so, I'm just getting down to the danger of that, and I like it.