The weather is grey and dull, the place is in a mess. Could one have chosen a better day and location for filming a contemplative film about memory?  The old Alstom factory at Point-Saint-Charles which once made trains and railway track has been transformed into a film studio, just for long enough to shoot a few scenes for Mémoires affectives, Francis Leclerc’s latest feature film.

At the press conference, despite insistent questioning by critics and journalists, the director, the producer, Barbara Shrier, and the main star of the film, Roy Dupuis, were rather economical on the subject of the narrative.  “Unfortunately we can’t tell you very much about the story,” says Francis Leclerc from the very start. Mémoires affectives is like a puzzle, and to reveal some of the components would spoil the enjoyment.”  All the same, these key individuals reveal that the film, whose budget is around three million dollars, shows the journey of Alexandre Tourneur (Roy Dupuis), a 41 year old veterinarian who, after a long coma caused by a deliberate automobile accident,  awakes with memory loss, and tries to reclaim his life and piece his past together.

“He sees people that he has known, like his wife and daughter,” Francis Leclerc add. “He wants to know who he is and draws up a programme to bring to light important moments in his life.” We also learn later that in his search for memories, Alexandre is helped by a security agent (Rosa Zacharie) and a psychiatrist (Maka Kotto), whom he sees regularly.

So, will Mémoires affectives be a bit like a Quebecois Memento? “Not at all,” the filmmaker confirms. “I’ve seen all the reference films that deal with memory, and although they’re good, mine will explore different avenues. All I can say is that unexpected things are going to happen.

What will Alexandre discover about his past? Who was responsible for his amnesia? To these questions the answer is unambiguous : keep it under your hat.

Yes, but still, in its approach, with what genre of film could it be compared? “It’s an auteur film above all, completely different from Une jeune fille à la fenêtre, Francis’ first feature film,” explains Barbara Shrier. “Different principally in its cinematographic technique. The reference film, not for its subject matter but for its direction, would be Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey.” Well, well ……

 The action takes place mostly in Charlevoix where the  majority of the scenes have been shot, apart from those which were done in Montreal and Quebec. “We spent the three coldest weeks of our lives in January and February on the Charlevoix shoot,” recounts the producer.  “It was minus 40 and the actors could scarcely speak. This slowed down our scene changes, but we were lucky because, despite the intense cold, the camera never stopped working.”

At the Alstom studio a group of us are watching an important scene where a distraught Alexandre is talking to Carole Lepage (Hélène Florent), an estate agent in Clermont. “This scene is a turning point in the film,”  declares Francis Leclerc. “Alexandre and Carole knew each other in the past, but with his memory loss he doesn’t remember.”

Later, Barbara Shrier briefly describes the technique used for a sequence in an old warehouse, the walls of which are covered in huge neon lights. In this scene which seems initially to be rather ordinary (Roy Dupuis just walks across the screen from left to right), director of photography Steve Asselin uses an 18mm lens.  The required effect is totally successful seen through the monitor.

Regarding his character, Roy Dupuis, who is very much involved in the scriptwriting process with Francis Leclerc and Marcel Beaulieu, explains : “He’s an introspective person. At the beginning he’s empty, pure almost, but slowly he assimilates the pieces of his life and notices - and this is the thriller or fantasy aspect of the film - that there are bits that don’t fit.” Isn’t that situation a bit alienating for him? “The ambiguity, the doubt,  the uneasiness are part of his daily life. Anger too. All this puts him into a state of panic.”

Mémoires affectives, which took more than 32 days to shoot and which, incidentally has no love story, will be released in autumn 2004. Also in the cast are Nathalie Coupal, Karine Lagueux, Benoit Gouin, Robert Lablonde and Guy Thauvette. But we shall refrain from divulging any more details, the decree must after all be respected ….