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In Finissant(e)s, Rafa?l Ouellet wanted to ?hear what young people have to say about their lives,? but he also wanted to tell a story.
Photograph by: John Kenney , THE GAZETTE
MONTREAL?? Never mind reality TV ?? reality cinema is the new thing, judging by two Quebec features being released Friday. While they differ in topics and tone, the films share a boundary-pushing impulse that confounds the familiar stylistic divide between documentary and fiction.
They are: Rafa?l Ouellet?s Finissant(e)s, following a group of rural high school students during their summer after graduation; and Martin Laroche?s Les man?ges humains, about a young Qu?b?coise woman?s exploration of her painful past as a child in Africa.
Both films feature a female protagonist making a documentary about her surroundings. And in both cases, what begins as the character?s innocent urge to capture something about the people and places around her leads to more profound truths, as the walls between her creative project and the real world come down.
With Finissant(e)s, Ouellet hoped to capture the feeling of being a teen in his hometown of D?gelis, which sits across the border from Edmunston, N.B.
?I?ve worked in youth television in Montreal, at MusiquePlus and Vrak.TV,? said the director, who at 38 has lived in Montreal for most of his adult life. ?But I always felt a distance from other young people here. I didn?t recognize myself. When I went back to my village, it struck me how much (the kids there) resembled me.
?They had the same jobs I had. They weren?t victims of fashion or technology. They didn?t have cellphones. In 2008-2009 (when I shot the film), Facebook wasn?t that important. People used the old home phone line to make calls. They had the same uncertainties about going to Rivi?re-du-Loup, Rimouski or Quebec City for CEGEP. Most chose a general (area of study), so that they could choose again in two years.
?Without doing an autobiographical film, which wasn?t the goal, I made a film that could almost be autobiographical, like (my) summer of ?91.?
Ouellet wanted to hear what these young people had to say about their lives. But he also wanted to tell a story. The director chose a protagonist, Carla Turcotte (who starred in his 2008 film New Denmark), and he structured the film with a few loose dramatic elements.
The premise is that Turcotte and her pal Guillaume are making a documentary about their graduating class. Ouellet got Turcotte to interview her friends on camera, under his supervision, with Guillaume filming ? and used that footage in Finissant(e)s.
He also shot fictional scenes with his own director of photography, Pascal l?Heureux. The result is a fascinating film, constantly in flux between genres and levels of realism.
?I wanted to capture the zeitgeist (of these kids),? Ouellet said, ?to let them speak about their worries, their concerns. I wanted to give them a platform, without changing too much ? to see how they lived.?
Even the film?s dramatic elements are based on real events. A campfire scene in which a girl disappears was inspired by an incident that had happened with one of Turcotte?s friends a month earlier. Depictions of car crashes in the film were a reflection of a sad reality in the region.
?Route 185, around D?gelis, was one of the deadliest in Quebec, for a long time,? Ouellet said. ?They?re fixing it now, but when I was younger, I had a lot of friends, and sisters and brothers of friends, who died. When I talked to the kids, I learned there?s a new danger ? this need for speed, with guys modifying cars so they can go really fast. Girls get in cars without asking questions, and there?s a big potential for danger.?
The film-within-a-film concept allowed Ouellet to move between fiction and documentary with relative freedom, emerging with an end-product that straddles both, while taking viewers somewhere new.
?I use a lot of reconstruction (of events),? he said. ?Is it documentary? Reconstruction is considered documentary. I wanted a movie that mixes fiction, documentary, reconstructions, interviews ? so that the line between fiction and documentary becomes blurred.?
That blurring is a central theme of Laroche?s Les man?ges humains. The film begins innocently, introducing us to Sophie, a film school grad working at a touring amusement park for the summer. When her boss asks her to make a short film to promote the park, she seizes the opportunity, filming her co-workers day and night. But her project takes on unexpected dimensions as Sophie finds herself no longer able to contain a long-held secret ? she was excised as a child in Africa ? and her fun little film becomes a means to confront her traumatic past.
?Excision is a subject that has always fascinated me,? Laroche said. ?I found it horrible, and incredible that it can exist. In reading Ma vie rebelle, the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian woman who was excised and forced into marriage before becoming a member of parliament in the Netherlands ? I was bowled over. I thought it would be interesting to tackle the subject in fiction.?
Les man?ges humains is told through Sophie?s eyes ? the entire film is shot through the lens of her camera, as part of the film she is making. In fact, all images were shot by Laroche?s cinematographer, F?lix T?treault.
?He did a super job,? the director said. ?He asked Sophie (who is supposed to be behind the camera in the film) to hold him, so he could feel her emotions.
?The major risk was that it had to be as realistic as possible. If not, the audience would disconnect.?
Laroche saw the technique as an essential component to his narrative, a tool through which his main character is able to broach a difficult topic that she had previously been unable to discuss with anyone.
?The faux-documentary style allows her to both deal with her problem and get away from her problem,? Laroche said. ?She?s very driven, and (her film) gives her a goal ? to work through her problem, to document it, and see it through to the end.?
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: @tchadunlevy
? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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