quebec film – The Concordian

“This isn’t my first film, but it almost feels like it,” said director Patrice Laliberté

Quebec’s first film produced as a Netflix original premiered at the 38th edition of the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma festival on Feb. 28, a milestone for the Quebec entertainment industry, according to director Patrice Laliberté.

Laliberté explained that high expectations for the province’s first Netflix production made him somewhat nervous on the first day of filming.

“It’s an enormous stress,” Laliberté told The Concordian. “This isn’t my first film, but it almost feels like it.”

While The Decline is his first feature-length film, Laliberté has directed a number of shorts that address a deep fear of the world ending.

In spite of the pressure, Laliberté didn’t shy away from tackling topics that hit close to home.

He describes this film as “very much a thriller and action movie” that also takes on divisive issues such as eco-anxiety, gun control and the migrant crisis.

“I definitely feel [eco-anxiety] every day, although I don’t think I’m organized enough to become a survivalist,” Laliberté said with a laugh. “A survivalist lifestyle is very withdrawn—it’s all about protecting me, my stuff and distrusting the government. That’s not part of my fundamental values at all.”

Set in rural Northern Quebec and filmed in the Laurentians for the region’s wilderness and proximity to Montreal, the thriller follows a man (Guillaume Laurin) who undergoes survivalism training until his fate takes a tragic turn.

The director first heard of the term “survivalist” when studying urban militias and right-wing extremist groups for a film project in 2015. The term describes a member of survivalism, a movement in which individuals actively prepare for doomsday scenarios.

“One of the guys involved with the [urban militia] group was a survivalist, and this really made me want to explore the subject more, which I got to do through research for the [Decline] screenplay,” Laliberté said.

With a $5 million budget, Laliberté, who co-wrote the screenplay with Nicolas Krief and Charles Dionne, didn’t take the project lightly.

The release of The Decline comes after a controversial 2017 agreement—spearheaded by then Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly—between the federal government and Netflix. The deal would have Netflix invest $500 million in original Canadian productions over five years. However, it drew criticism as it made no mention of a commitment to producing francophone content.

“I’m proud of how the work turned out, but there was a lot of backlash against Netflix after the Mélanie Joly deal,” Laliberté said. “Now, it seems everyone is looking to see how Netflix will position itself in a new market with this movie.”

In anticipation of The Decline’s online release, Netflix will dub the film in 10 languages and subtitles will also be made available. Laliberté has already watched his film in English.

“It’s pretty funny listening to the actors’ voices with their accents,” Laliberté said. “Using the same actors for the English version was Netflix’s idea, and I really liked it. It keeps all the colour of Canadian, francophone speech, even though they’ve dubbed their own voices.”

Until he begins writing his next project, Laliberté is focused on planning the fifth edition of Plein(s) Écran(s), an online film festival that he founded in 2016, which is hosted entirely on Facebook. Participants submit their original short films for review and may earn thousands of dollars in prize money. Following the broadcasted award ceremony, viewers can watch the winning films on the Plein(s) Écran(s) Facebook page for 24 hours.

Audiences can catch screenings of The Decline in select theatres for a week, starting March 13. The movie will be available to stream on Netflix as of March 27.

Photos by Laurence B. D.

Vincent Biron speaks candidly about his new film, Prank, now in theaters

Keep your eyes open for Prank, an unusual piece of Quebec cinema that is certainly an acquired taste. It’s vulgar, it’s immature and it shows teens doing what they do best—stirring up trouble in nasty ways, all while finding themselves and growing up, however slowly and unwillingly. The Concordian sat down with the film’s director and Concordia grad, Vincent Biron.

Where was the film shot?

A lot of places. Some of it in Montreal, some of it in Sorel… I wanted to create a non-existing place. I didn’t want to set it in Montreal or any given small town. I liked the idea of a no-man’s land.

That’s interesting, given that the film feels kind of universal, which could explain why it’s being talked about abroad.

Well, we all live through adolescence and, even though we all live through it differently, some experiences are quite common. They’re usually both difficult and enlightening at once… And you can find these kinds of nameless suburbs pretty much anywhere in the world.

Did you try to make the film more universal or specifically French Canadian? Or a mix of both?

I think it’s a mix of both. Because, you know, I do acknowledge the reality of French Canadian life, but I’d like to think that the art I create can be viewed as having a larger significance, rather than simply a part of its local context. Particularly in the sense that French Canadian films haven’t had an audience for a few years now. So I would be denying myself a larger audience. Cinema is an act of communication. There’s nothing sadder than a film that is not seen… That’s why we’ve been very involved in promoting Prank—I want people to hear our message.

You have experience as a cinematographer. Was it hard to make the jump to directing?

Not really, since I’ve made a lot of short films since I graduated [in 2006]. I do direct, but I’ve chosen not to become a director in the commercial sense. I was at a crossroads after I graduated: I was starting to work on cinematography, and I was asking myself what I should do, because you have to choose. It’s very hard to actively do both [cinematography and directing], and I decided that cinematography was a good choice because it didn’t require me to be as emotionally involved. As a director, I’m extremely passionate about my work and I get nervous at the thought of having to shoot commercials.

Were you involved in the cinematography on Prank?

I was actually the cinematographer. There were only three of us. I was shooting and directing, one of the co-producers was working on sound and another co-producer organized stuff… I usually don’t do cinematography on my own projects, but this time I wanted to avoid having to hire someone else because it’s a beautiful job, but it’s a demanding one. It takes assistants and lighting, and I knew I wanted to make the film using nothing.

Let’s go back to the theme of adolescence. Most descriptions of the film claim that it’s a coming-of-age story, but to me it’s rather a story of the characters refusing to come of age.

Yeah, I do think the characters [are being made to come of age] kicking and screaming. I think that’s how we all live through it… It’s a moment when we all kind of reject the adult world, and there’s some of that in the film because the adult world is very dramatic.

It’s like they’re two separate worlds.

Right, and that was deliberate. And your analysis is correct—it’s a film about refusing to be a part of that world… I really like sad humour. That allowed me to explore the adult world through that lens.

What surprised me is that we never see the main character’s parents, even though there’s a scene that his mother should logically appear in.

Yeah, that was deliberate… The screenwriters and myself didn’t want to make a “message movie.” We didn’t want to make a statement about a generation, because there’s something reactionary about that… I didn’t want to make an “old fart” kind of movie. I didn’t want to make a film about “young people.”… Adolescence, in my view, is a very insular experience.

How old are the characters supposed to be? I feel like the older ones are about 17 or 18 years old.

I knew we wanted to leave that ambiguous. I’d done an initial casting session and screen tests for younger actors and it was a bit boring. The contrast between them and [the main character] is more interesting if we feel that there’s more of an age difference. They’re more interesting to [the main character] because they seem more experienced … I’m a big fan of John Hughes, you know. In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Matthew Broderick was 22 or 23 years old when it was shot, not 16. But the logic of the film sells it to you. As filmmakers, we’re too scared to let go of reality. Especially in Quebec, we have a strong history of documentary filmmaking, so people want to make stuff that looks real.

Do you have any future plans?

We’re writing another full-length film with the same team. I really enjoyed shooting this way, with no money, and I learned a lot doing it. I’d like to repeat that experience… It gives you complete freedom to say whatever you want, and not to wait. Because from the moment that you say you’re waiting to get [a larger budget], you’re gonna keep on waiting.

Prank is now in theaters.