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Dangerous Liaisons In revisiting the tragic destiny of an impossible love, filmmaker Charles Binamé rekindles the memory of a people. And gives us an epic worthy of the name. “Un homme et son péché is a little bit like a Quebecois Romeo and Juliet,” explains Roy Dupuis who plays Alexis Labranche in the new adaptation of this great historic panorama. “It’s a beautiful love story with characters that are sometimes tragic but often larger than life.” Written in 1933 by Claude-Henri Grignon, the story of Un homme et son péché is simple; to win the hand of a young country girl, a mature man comes to an arrangement with her father, but the pact prevents the young woman from enjoying happiness with her true love. “Fortunately, times have changed, These days it’s quite rare not to be able to have a passionate relationship with the person of your choice,” continues Dupuis. The actor claims to have been attracted by the wild side of Alexis’ character. “He has the energy of a cascading river. He’s both western and Native American. He’s free and a traveller. He’s not a great believer in God. For all these reasons, he’s the black sheep of the village.” According to the actor, it’s the wide open spaces and the countryside that instils in Alexis his independent spirit, and his nomadic tendencies, peculiar to the Native Americans. “He’s the kind of man you could only find in this region, and in this era.” Neither was Karine Vanasse lost for words when it came to describing her character. She plays the girl in the love triangle. “Donalda is an extremely strong woman. She’s a girl who is both modern and chained to the values of the period. You just want to give her a good shaking to waken her up,” explains the 18 year old actress of her first leading female role. “Donalda believed it would be possible to put aside her love for Alexis in order to save her father. I believe that it’s unthinkable to live like that. Despair always catches up with us in the end, especially if you’ve had the misfortune to have tasted happiness already.” LOVE AND GREED In the role of Séraphin Poudrier, Pierre Lebeau is quite simply brilliant. “I offered him the role without even auditioning him and he accepted immediately. Anyway, I don’t think I would have made the film without him,” says director Charles Binamé. “Séraphin is a legendary character. My greatest challenge was to portray him as if he’d never been played by anyone before,” explains Pierre Lebeau. “I decided to tackle him as a man who suffers greatly. The sexual aspect of the character is also very important. Séraphin finds women disturbing, but it’s through his money that he projects his fantasies.” The drama of Un homme et son péché unfolds at Sainte-Adèle in 1889, although the filming took place in the Lanaudière region. There, the technical crew reproduced a “19th century version” of the most famous village in the Laurentides. At the same time, in order to build Séraphin’s village, they needed to deforest an area between to small lakes, taking great care to keep the tree stumps to give a raw look to the foreground. “It was good to see the real Quebec, as it must have been in those days,” says Karine Vanasse. The historical context of colonisation, the influence of the church on society and the harshness of the lives of the peasants create in the film a world which is disposed to loneliness and misfortune. As if all the elements were united to bring about the advent of tragic destinies. “The story of this film doesn’t try to praise human nature. Rather it tries to understand how human nature operates and to break down the mechanics of it,” explains the director. “In this way I’ve tried to explore the characters’ motivations and their reasons for living in order to understand them better. Apart from Séraphin, Alexis and Donalda, Un homme et son péché features a host of characters whose cast resembles a veritable “Who’s Who” of Quebecois cinema: Rémy Girard (Père Laloge), Robert Brouillette (Bidou Laloge), Céline Bonnier (Nanette Laloge), Benoit Brière (Jambe de bois), Julien Poulin (Le Père Ovide), Pierrette Robitaille (Mme Malterre), Anne-Marie Cadieux (Olympe), Normand Chouinard (le curé Raudin), Louise Portal (Delphine Lacoste) and Marie Tifo (Delima Greenwood). “I find it very interesting that we’re again filming beautiful stories simply because they are beautiful,” points out Roy Dupuis. “Besides, these stories aren’t just beautiful, they’re noble too. These days, are there still many people ready to sacrifice their lives to save their family?” asks Karine Vanasse. “This story has a mythical context because it binds the people in a dreadful fate”, continues Charles Binamé, before adding: “On the other hand, it’s often in these dreadful fates that the true nature of people is revealed.” For better and for worse. Un homme et son péché goes on release on 29th November in cinemas throughout the province. |