 In Manners of Dying, Roy Dupuis slips into the skin of a condemned man. The film is played and replayed in the head of prison governor Serge Houde. Screenplay by Jeremy Allen from the short story by Yann Martel.
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Roy Dupuis was thrown into jail several days ago without so much as a trial! As far as we know he hasn’t committed any crime.
A miscarriage of justice? Arbitrary imprisonment? Rest assured, if he’s “inside” it’s of his own free will. Playing the lead in Manners of Dying, a film inspired by a short story by Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, the actor is spending the month of September in Maison Gomin.
When I met him this week in the former women’s prison, the beautiful Roy really seemed like a caged beast. Obviously, playing the role of someone condemned to death like Kevin, the main character in the film, shakes a man up, however clear his conscience might be.
Moreover, we’d been advised that we couldn’t watch the filming directly as the exercise was too demanding for the actors. True?
“Ah, yes!” remarks Roy with a seriousness that leaves no room for interpretation. “I’ve never done anything so intense. I die eight times. But it’s not just the dying. It’s going to meet death. It’s worse than you could imagine.”
His last wish
Condemned to death by lethal injection, Kevin wants to send his mother a videotape of his execution. This is the last wish that he asks of Parlington, the prison governor. Caught on the hop by this unusual request, Parlington tries to figure out what his prisoner is up to. From there on he imagines different scenarios, different attitudes a condemned man might adopt when faced with death. In its way, the looping script of Manners of Dying reminds one a little of Run, Lola, Run, of Memento or Groundhog Day.
“Starting from the same point and developing different possibilities attracted me both as a concept and a challenge,” explains Jeremy Peter Allen, whose first full-length feature this is. He has been working on this project since 1999, long before Yann Martel shot to fame. “Even though this has always been my film, there has been a lot of dialogue between him and me throughout the course of the project. He has been receptive to the modifications that have been made to make his story more filmable.”
The fact remains that the film will find its real meaning in the performances of the actors, insists the director. You only have to talk to Roy Dupuis to understand that he has to draw the emotion from deep inside himself.
Manners of dying
“We are doing the second way of dying. The first was a bit of a brute. I wanted it to be ugly, very ugly. I knew what I was aiming at, but I didn’t know what direction it was going in. Technically speaking, it’s not acting. You have to open up. It’s out of your hands.”
The actor admits that the character haunted him from the moment he agreed to play him. “He asks quite a lot of me. He’s always there. I have difficulty switching off.”
Serge Houde, in the role of the governor, plays opposite Roy in this one-to-one encounter behind closed doors.
A native of Limoilou and perfectly bilingual, Houde appeared in The Score alongside Robert de Niro. He’s been seen several times with Luc Picard (October, The Last Breath, Shadow of the Hawk), but this is his first meeting on the big screen with Roy Dupuis. “I was ready for Roy,” he states. “He has very obvious charm, but also great intensity. You just have to look into his eyes and listen to him and he’ll give you everything you need. Working with someone of his calibre is easy.”
Budget of $1,000,070
Manners of Dying has a budget of one million. Yves Fortin, head of Thalie Productions, the company that’s guaranteeing the film, takes the trouble to specify, “$1,000,070, to be fair.” Which just goes to show that the gentleman has a firm hold on the expenditure.
Nineteen days of filming, a technical crew of about thirty, the large majority of which are recruited from the Quebec region, so we are told, including the strategic jobs, that, roughly speaking, is the outcome.
Yves Fortin has high hopes of Manners of Dying, which is filmed in English. Cannes 2004 is already in his sights. Toronto and Sundance, California constitute two other potential targets. But let’s keep our feet on the ground. At the time of writing, there’s still a lot of filming to be done.
From the same press conference, extracts or details from other publications, to avoid unnecessary duplication:
The former women’s prison la Maison Gomin is steeped in history and was chosen over other locations primarily for the realism it offered. For example, the authenticity of the structural material allowed them to obtain credible background noises.
At the press conference Dupuis stated that outside working hours the character still stayed with him. “He’s difficult to forget. He comes with me back to the hotel. He takes me over. It’s a draining, exhausting role that demands a lot physically. I can’t always rely on technique with this character.” Certain dark areas require that the actor stretches himself a lot. Dupuis explains that for research purposes he has spoken with the last man to be condemned to death in Canada. “I spent six hours with him, but I could have listened for hours more.”
Manners of Dying is a cyclical film that alternates principally between two sets - the enclosed space between the four walls of a cell, and a place called the lethal injection room. The technical crew have drilled openings in the walls and installed an external lighting system to give them control over the light. Dupuis’ cell was rebuilt in the former dining area of Maison Gomin. Wire mesh and detachable structures make set changes a lot easier for the crew.
Manners of Dying, which began filming on 3 September 2003, will be released in spring 2004. Other members of the cast include Serge Houde (the governor), Tony Robinow, Vlasta Vrana, Kevin McCoy and Gregory Hlady.
Maison Gomin was built in 1931 by businessman François Jobin in a residential area of Sainte-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City. It was designed by architect Raoul Chênevert. in the style of a mock 14th century feudal castle, and was used as a women’s prison from 1931 until it became vacant in 1992. While it is currently being offered for sale as a residential development, it has served as a film-set before – as Marlon Brando’s jail in Yves Simoneau’s Free Money (1997). |
