Nervous moments, signs of passion or difficulties, funny stories … Charles Binamé reveals all this and more to Star Inc. as he comments on his favourite snapshots from the filming of
Séraphin, un homme et son péché
The first meeting
This is the scene where Donalda and Alexis meet. It’s also day one of the filming, and the first scene where Karine Vanasse and Roy Dupuis have to kiss. So they didn’t know each other and suddenly they’re thrown in at the deep end. It was just an accident of the schedule, but it worked, because there’s still a kind of innocence and awkwardness about Donalda and a desire between the two of them, a very understandable kind of fragility. I’m sure that if we had shot the scene five days later – when they knew each other better – there wouldn’t have been the same magic …
The goodbyes
I remember this day as a complete write-off. It’s the last scene between Donalda and Alexis before he leaves. It was difficult to direct and we didn’t have a lot of time. We were shooting in a place that had difficult access. Donalda comes onto the rocks, Alexis is wounded, we’re on the edge of a waterfall, night is falling … It’s an intense scene, the most moving one in the film, but we can’t use it because we lose the light. And finally I learn there’s been an accident: my 2nd unit director of photography is in hospital! Finally we retake the goodbyes scene later, and it’s wonderful, it’s even better.
Alexis and Jambe-de-bois
This scene between Alexis (Roy Dupuis) and Jambe-de-bois (Benoît Brière) was probably the most difficult one to shoot. I had a busy day, as complicated as could be, and on going into the woods that morning I heard people saying, “Some aeroplanes have crashed into a tower, the army has just grounded passenger planes!” It was the 11th of September …. Obviously, when you are that far away, everything is magnified. It seemed like the end of the world, and I was in another universe, in an age where there were no aeroplanes, trying to film with a crew who were, let’s say, “distracted”. Everyone was in a daze and believed it, but not me. It was probably denial: I had a hard time that day …. It was quite extraordinary
The falling horse
It’s a shot where a horse has to fall in front of the camera. I was on the ground with quite a heavy camera. I say to the scene shifter , “If the horse doesn’t land on its mark, catch hold of me by the belt.” Through the viewer I see the horse coming, coming, then it’s on me: it doesn’t fall on its mark, it falls on top of me! Suddenly I feel myself being pulled by the scene shifter … fortunately, because as I was on my knees I wouldn’t have had time to react. It’s one of the most spectacular takes in the film. You see the horse coming over us, the soil flying, you feel the camera breaking off, it all adds to the effect. It couldn’t have been more successful if we’d tried!