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Front Page, Industry News
Montreal World Film Festival 2011: Coteau Rouge’s humour fills the bill
Monday August 22nd 2011Andre Forcier was running on empty when we met late Thursday afternoon.
The veteran Quebecois filmmaker had literally spent une nuit blanche the night before trying – unsuccessfully – to sort out some major technical problems with his film Coteau Rouge.
He’d been up all night in a desperate effort to finish the film on time for its first ever public screening Thursday morning at the Montreal World Film Festival but even a last-ditch all-nighter wasn’t enough to deliver a proper finished copy.
What screened Thursday morning at the Imperial Cinema – and again at the official opening ceremony that night at Théâtre Maisonneuve – was a DVD copy of the film dating from a few weeks back, with a number of sequences featuring out-of-sync dialogue, some colour issues and no end credits.
Forcier said the post-production crisis only erupted 48 hours prior to the fest launch and despite frantic calls to some of the top technical experts in town, there was no way to fix the problems in time for the fest screenings. So it wasn’t anyone’s fault but the fact remains that it was a far from ideal way to kickoff the fest, nor was it the best way to launch what just might be Forcier’s most accessible film in a couple of decades.
The good news is that the latest wild, wildly comic flight of fancy from the director of L’Eau chaude, l’eau frette is one of his strongest films and when it launches commercially Sept. 9, with all these technical glitches but a distant memory, it should find an audience chez nous. In spite of the far from ideal screening conditions, the crowd at both the morning and evening showings really dug the flyé humour, top-drawer acting and deeply-felt emotion of this story of an eccentric extended family in the working-class Longueuil ‘hood of Coteau Rouge.
A couple of hours before the fest opening ceremony, Forcier was completely zonked but was still awake enough to know full well he had one very good film on his hands.
“Unfortunately the copy doesn’t do justice to the camera work of Daniel Jobin,” said Forcier, slumped in his chair at the Hyatt-Regency bar. “But the film is stronger than its technical problems. It’s very stressful but you can’t let it show. I’m totally stressed out but I don’t look like I’m stressed out. I look tired.”
Forcier did not come to the microphone to introduce the film Thursday morning, instead watching incognito from the back row and he liked what he saw.
“When people started to react to the film, I forgot all about the fact that the image wasn’t perfect and I got into the film like any other viewer,” said Forcier. “I really liked the film. Gaston Lepage was beside me and he couldn’t stop laughing.”
Coteau Rouge focuses on the Blanchard family – a colourful clan headed by grandfather Honoré (Paolo Noël), who claims to be descended from a giant sturgeon. His son Fernand (Lepage) runs a gas station that’s really an excuse for him and his cronies to play boules. Fernand’s daughter Hélène (Céline Bonnier) is married to a sleazeball condo developer (played with some zest by Roy Dupuis) and his son Henri (Mario Saint-Amand) is an ex-boxer whose wife Estelle (Hélène Reeves) is terminally ill.
Even after all these years, Forcier continues to struggle to find financing for his films, in part because the man known as the enfant terrible of Quebec film has never been shy about blasting the public agencies Telefilm Canada and SODEC. The budget for Coteau Rouge was $1.4 million, though it looks like it cost at least twice that. The film went over budget by $175,000, forcing Forcier and his producer Linda Pinet, also his wife, to forego their salary on the film.
“It’s a false system here,” said Forcier. “In reality, the producers and distributors are well-funded, and the directors have no control over their lives. That’s what I’ve been saying for years. Lots of my colleagues told me that they agreed with me but were afraid to come out and say it publicly.”
Which begs the question – Is he not afraid of incurring the wrath of the funders?
“Not really. I just try to make a good film every now and then.”
Coteau Rouge opens in theatres Sept. 9.
Source: Montreal Gazette
Front Page, Industry News
Montreal World Film Festival 2011: Coteau Rouge’s humour fills the bill
Monday August 22nd 2011Andre Forcier was running on empty when we met late Thursday afternoon.
The veteran Quebecois filmmaker had literally spent une nuit blanche the night before trying – unsuccessfully – to sort out some major technical problems with his film Coteau Rouge.
He’d been up all night in a desperate effort to finish the film on time for its first ever public screening Thursday morning at the Montreal World Film Festival but even a last-ditch all-nighter wasn’t enough to deliver a proper finished copy.
What screened Thursday morning at the Imperial Cinema – and again at the official opening ceremony that night at Théâtre Maisonneuve – was a DVD copy of the film dating from a few weeks back, with a number of sequences featuring out-of-sync dialogue, some colour issues and no end credits.
Forcier said the post-production crisis only erupted 48 hours prior to the fest launch and despite frantic calls to some of the top technical experts in town, there was no way to fix the problems in time for the fest screenings. So it wasn’t anyone’s fault but the fact remains that it was a far from ideal way to kickoff the fest, nor was it the best way to launch what just might be Forcier’s most accessible film in a couple of decades.
The good news is that the latest wild, wildly comic flight of fancy from the director of L’Eau chaude, l’eau frette is one of his strongest films and when it launches commercially Sept. 9, with all these technical glitches but a distant memory, it should find an audience chez nous. In spite of the far from ideal screening conditions, the crowd at both the morning and evening showings really dug the flyé humour, top-drawer acting and deeply-felt emotion of this story of an eccentric extended family in the working-class Longueuil ‘hood of Coteau Rouge.
A couple of hours before the fest opening ceremony, Forcier was completely zonked but was still awake enough to know full well he had one very good film on his hands.
“Unfortunately the copy doesn’t do justice to the camera work of Daniel Jobin,” said Forcier, slumped in his chair at the Hyatt-Regency bar. “But the film is stronger than its technical problems. It’s very stressful but you can’t let it show. I’m totally stressed out but I don’t look like I’m stressed out. I look tired.”
Forcier did not come to the microphone to introduce the film Thursday morning, instead watching incognito from the back row and he liked what he saw.
“When people started to react to the film, I forgot all about the fact that the image wasn’t perfect and I got into the film like any other viewer,” said Forcier. “I really liked the film. Gaston Lepage was beside me and he couldn’t stop laughing.”
Coteau Rouge focuses on the Blanchard family – a colourful clan headed by grandfather Honoré (Paolo Noël), who claims to be descended from a giant sturgeon. His son Fernand (Lepage) runs a gas station that’s really an excuse for him and his cronies to play boules. Fernand’s daughter Hélène (Céline Bonnier) is married to a sleazeball condo developer (played with some zest by Roy Dupuis) and his son Henri (Mario Saint-Amand) is an ex-boxer whose wife Estelle (Hélène Reeves) is terminally ill.
Even after all these years, Forcier continues to struggle to find financing for his films, in part because the man known as the enfant terrible of Quebec film has never been shy about blasting the public agencies Telefilm Canada and SODEC. The budget for Coteau Rouge was $1.4 million, though it looks like it cost at least twice that. The film went over budget by $175,000, forcing Forcier and his producer Linda Pinet, also his wife, to forego their salary on the film.
“It’s a false system here,” said Forcier. “In reality, the producers and distributors are well-funded, and the directors have no control over their lives. That’s what I’ve been saying for years. Lots of my colleagues told me that they agreed with me but were afraid to come out and say it publicly.”
Which begs the question – Is he not afraid of incurring the wrath of the funders?
“Not really. I just try to make a good film every now and then.”
Coteau Rouge opens in theatres Sept. 9.
Source: Montreal Gazette
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Front Page, Industry News
Montreal World Film Festival 2011: Coteau Rouge’s humour fills the bill
Monday August 22nd 2011Andre Forcier was running on empty when we met late Thursday afternoon.
The veteran Quebecois filmmaker had literally spent une nuit blanche the night before trying – unsuccessfully – to sort out some major technical problems with his film Coteau Rouge.
He’d been up all night in a desperate effort to finish the film on time for its first ever public screening Thursday morning at the Montreal World Film Festival but even a last-ditch all-nighter wasn’t enough to deliver a proper finished copy.
What screened Thursday morning at the Imperial Cinema – and again at the official opening ceremony that night at Théâtre Maisonneuve – was a DVD copy of the film dating from a few weeks back, with a number of sequences featuring out-of-sync dialogue, some colour issues and no end credits.
Forcier said the post-production crisis only erupted 48 hours prior to the fest launch and despite frantic calls to some of the top technical experts in town, there was no way to fix the problems in time for the fest screenings. So it wasn’t anyone’s fault but the fact remains that it was a far from ideal way to kickoff the fest, nor was it the best way to launch what just might be Forcier’s most accessible film in a couple of decades.
The good news is that the latest wild, wildly comic flight of fancy from the director of L’Eau chaude, l’eau frette is one of his strongest films and when it launches commercially Sept. 9, with all these technical glitches but a distant memory, it should find an audience chez nous. In spite of the far from ideal screening conditions, the crowd at both the morning and evening showings really dug the flyé humour, top-drawer acting and deeply-felt emotion of this story of an eccentric extended family in the working-class Longueuil ‘hood of Coteau Rouge.
A couple of hours before the fest opening ceremony, Forcier was completely zonked but was still awake enough to know full well he had one very good film on his hands.
“Unfortunately the copy doesn’t do justice to the camera work of Daniel Jobin,” said Forcier, slumped in his chair at the Hyatt-Regency bar. “But the film is stronger than its technical problems. It’s very stressful but you can’t let it show. I’m totally stressed out but I don’t look like I’m stressed out. I look tired.”
Forcier did not come to the microphone to introduce the film Thursday morning, instead watching incognito from the back row and he liked what he saw.
“When people started to react to the film, I forgot all about the fact that the image wasn’t perfect and I got into the film like any other viewer,” said Forcier. “I really liked the film. Gaston Lepage was beside me and he couldn’t stop laughing.”
Coteau Rouge focuses on the Blanchard family – a colourful clan headed by grandfather Honoré (Paolo Noël), who claims to be descended from a giant sturgeon. His son Fernand (Lepage) runs a gas station that’s really an excuse for him and his cronies to play boules. Fernand’s daughter Hélène (Céline Bonnier) is married to a sleazeball condo developer (played with some zest by Roy Dupuis) and his son Henri (Mario Saint-Amand) is an ex-boxer whose wife Estelle (Hélène Reeves) is terminally ill.
Even after all these years, Forcier continues to struggle to find financing for his films, in part because the man known as the enfant terrible of Quebec film has never been shy about blasting the public agencies Telefilm Canada and SODEC. The budget for Coteau Rouge was $1.4 million, though it looks like it cost at least twice that. The film went over budget by $175,000, forcing Forcier and his producer Linda Pinet, also his wife, to forego their salary on the film.
“It’s a false system here,” said Forcier. “In reality, the producers and distributors are well-funded, and the directors have no control over their lives. That’s what I’ve been saying for years. Lots of my colleagues told me that they agreed with me but were afraid to come out and say it publicly.”
Which begs the question – Is he not afraid of incurring the wrath of the funders?
“Not really. I just try to make a good film every now and then.”
Coteau Rouge opens in theatres Sept. 9.
Source: Montreal Gazette
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