The scene in question, faithfully reconstructed, takes place in 1957. Monica, her first husband Michael and her cousin Sylvana arrive at the famous Casa Loma cabaret. The atmosphere is festive. The cigarette girls serve the growing number of customers. After a little dancing and conversation the band stops and the master of ceremonies invites Sylvana to sing a song. This rather short scene takes all morning to organize.
“I don’t shoot in chronological order. It’s no good explaining everything at the start of the day – it happens too quickly and people have difficulty following,” says filmmaker Pierre Houle who, with Monica…., is directing his first feature film after several television series (Omerta, Tag and Bunker le Cirque). “Given that I start with the wide shots, there are several stages to follow: getting the lighting right, positioning the extras, rehearsing with the actors, setting up the cameras and seeing if the result is satisfactory. The afternoon is spent more on the tight shots to pick up the emotions and the dialogue between the three central characters. It’s an extremely busy day.”
Produced by Lorraine Richard and Luc Martineau of Cité-Amérique-FRV Media, the team behind Charles Binamé’s Un homme et son péché, Monica-La-Mitraille unfolds over a decade, i.e. during three distinct periods in 1957, 1964 and 1967, the time when the city of Montreal decided to get rid of its undesirables just before Expo 67.
“The film begins in 1967 (round the spectacular death of Monica who at 27 was felled by police bullets on the 19th of September that year), continues like a long flashback (from her youth to her influential encounters in the red light district), and ends with the tragedy when she is pursued by the police following her last bank robbery,” relates producer Lorraine Richard. “We filmed the frantic car chase on boulevard Pie-IX, in the same place where it happened.”
Furthermore, this day will always remain the best moment of filming for Céline Bonnier who plays the title role. “I was dreading this scene because Monica’s daughter was present while we were filming,” she reveals during a telephone interview, “so I felt I was getting onto delicate ground where I didn’t entirely belong. It was very intense.”
But the film, inspired by the novel Memories of Monica written by Georges-Hébert Germain, by the photographs and articles from one of the newspapers of the time and the meetings screenwriter Luc Dionne had with the people who knew Monica, does not put the emphasis on robberies perpetrated every thirty seconds. “I show only three bank robberies, which is not a lot considering the number she committed”, declares Pierre Houle, who promises that his film is grim but not violent. “The violence that is there is poverty and destitution. Monica’s playground is la Main. Although the film conveys this reality, it’s not squalid for all that. We have particularly tried to humanise Monica and to understand her modernity by showing her in relation to her men and her three children.” Céline Bonnier says Monica seems to be, “a complex person, adventurous, sensual and very maternal all at the same time. It’s a colourful role for an actress.”
In amongst all the fraudsters we see Monica interacting with her father Théo, played by Marc Labrèche, her first husband Michael (Frank Schorpion replaced Ron Lea at short notice when he withdrew because of a scheduling conflict), her second spouse Gaston (Patrick Huard), her last lover Gérald (Roy Dupuis), her daughter and two sons. The finishing touches are added by other notable characters played by Rémy Girard, as the local big shot, Mario Jean, Gérald’s brother, and Isabelle Blais who plays Sylvana.
With a budget of 7.375 million dollars, Monica-La-Mitraille required more than thirty five days shooting and several locations in the metropolis and in Saint-Jean-sur-le-Richelieu, and will be released in May 2004.
La Presse, 26 September 2003
At the time, Monique Sparvieri, known as Machine-Gun Monica, lived in a man’s world, gun in hand and balaclava on her head. A wonderful subject for a film with the perfect heroine to keep up the suspense until the last gunshot. “All the girls wanted this role,” says Céline Bonnier, delighted to be chosen. “A female bank robber who had three children and who knitted her own balaclavas! She’s a strong, dynamic woman who also experiences touching moments. She most probably acted this way because she felt crushed.”
More conflict and destitution … Céline Bonnier likes women who aren’t easy. “I have difficulty playing happy. What gets to me are the cracks, the wounds. I like to fall off the edge. Like parachute jumping, but with protection.”
Around the actress are men; screenwriters Luc Dionne and Sylvain Guy, putting the emphasis on those people that the gangster loved. “You picture her as being very sensual, even though she was supposed to be the leader of the gang,” says Céline. “Love swallowed her up.”
In the film….. we see her momentarily escaping her misery into the arms of her much older first husband. When he leaves her to flee to England after a failed bank robbery, she finds happiness with Gaston (Patrick Huard), then Gérald (Roy Dupuis). All men with whom she plans bank robberies.
Yesterday afternoon, Céline Bonnier filmed a
scene on Roy Dupuis’ lap, in a disused bar in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu,
converted into St-John’s café “Monica’s home-from-home where all the scum
hung out,” explains Lorraine Richard. Not far away is Mario Jean, in his
first leading film role, that of Roy Dupuis’ brother. “I play a guy who’s
not too bright, who acts first and asks questions later. And yet … I’m not
sure that he ever asks them”!
Le Journal de Montreal, 28 September, 2003
Last week, the former bar <<the St-John>> in the Red Light district was, in
the space of a few days, reconstructed in a disused building in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
“The Americans would most probably have built the entire Red Light district
in the studio, but their budgets are a lot more attractive,” illustrates the
director. “To direct a period film with a budget like ours (7 million
dollars plus change), you have to stretch the imagination a bit.”
Houle’s constant collaborator, Luc Dionne, is writing the script (with the
help of Sylvain Guy). This is his first film. A challenge. “The difficulty
in writing a two-hour film is not being able to really spread it out.
Especially for a guy like me who is used to writing 13 episode series. When
you write a film, you can’t leave in anything superfluous.”
In the theatre as well as on the small and big screens, Céline Bonnier seems
always to play strong women with tragic destinies. “Though I’m a very funny
girl in real life,” she jokes. No-one however will be surprised to see the
role of Machine-Gun Monica added to the filmography of this always excellent
actress. “It’s true that I often play roles that have a strength of
character,” she admits. “Girls who get ahead even if they come from dreadful
backgrounds.”
Monique Sparvieri, alias Machine-Gun Monica, didn’t have it easy. A
difficult childhood in one of the poorest districts; a first husband who
left her, alone with three small children. She died at 27, killed in action
while trying to rob a bank even though it was under surveillance by armed
police.
An act that some people see as suicide,
others as a response to the media who had portrayed her as a heroine.
“Monique is a roller-coaster. She’s a woman who had a hard time and who
decides to go for it and to live life to the full. I don’t think she knew
that she was heading for a tragedy. But I’m like that too. I’m attracted by
risks, I love to throw myself into the unknown. But not like Monique, of
course!
But come to think of it, that’s maybe why I’m an actress and why I play roles like these.”
7 Jours, 31 January 2004
Roy: “After that I went on to Monica la mitraille, where my role amounts to a bit part.”