Rendez-vous winner Lanctot

well into production of next film

montreal: Director Micheline Lanctot (Sonatine), whose Deux actrices was named best feature film of ’93 at this year’s Rendez-vous du cinema quebecois, is the writer/director of the feature La vie d’un hero, which began principal photography March 8.

Produced by Rock Demers of Productions La Fete, La vie d’un hero is a 32-day shoot set in Quebec’s rural L’Estrie region and in and around Montreal. The film is part historical drama as seen through the eyes of an intelligent seven-year-old girl.

Set between 1944 and 1994, it tells the story of honest country folk and their disturbing and sometimes hilarious relationship with a German pow. As time passes, the German officer becomes a larger-than-life hero and family legend until the day, some 50 years on, he announces his intention to return to Quebec…

Leading players include Gilbert Sicotte and Veronique Laflaguais. Gaudrine Sauriol is the art director and longtime Demers collaborator, Thomas Vamos, is the dop.

‘Today, 95% of the Quebec population is totally unaware that these camps existed,’ says Demers, who holds the production is ‘Lanctot’s most important film to date.’

La vie d’un hero is budgeted at $2.5 million with financing from Telefilm Canada, the Quebec tax credit, the National Film Board, La Fete, and Stopfilm, Lanctot’s company. Yves Rivard of the nfb is the associate producer. Malofilm Distribution holds Canadian and world rights.

One down, one to go

telefiction has just wrapped 25 15-minute episodes of Geopuses, a delightful new puppet series about world-traveling fleas. It premiered earlier this month on Canal Famille.

Based on an original idea from Dominique Drouin and Bernard Montas, scripters on Les grands proces, Geopuses was shot at Astral’s Northcliffe studio on a budget of $20,000 per episode. Michel Beriault directed, and Jacynthe Caron and Isabelle Langlois wrote the scripts. Producers Claude Veillet and Jacques Bonin say they are shopping for an exporter.

Telefiction’s 10-hour Canada/ France drama production, Mourir d’amour, heads for France for more location shooting from March 28 through to early May. The final two episodes will be shot in Quebec in June, says Bonin.

Financed by Telefilm Canada and sogic, Mourir d’amour features two star-crossed lovers who refuse to be separated after death and meet again in changing circumstances and historical periods over 10 episodes.

The original series bible is from Fernand Dansereau. Broadcasters include Radio-Quebec, tvontario’s La Chaine and France 3. Richard Ciupka is the director. The series premieres on Radio-Quebec this fall.

Bonin says Telefiction will soon announce details of a new production, a tv miniseries slated for principal photography this summer.

Hectic pace

comedian, game show host and morning radio personality Patrice L’Ecuyer has hordes of female admirers and is also doing pretty well with programmers at Radio-Canada, where he is the star of a new teleroman called Santa Maria.

The talented actor was the host of Radio-Canada’s Detecteurs de mensonges (The Lie Detectors), and played Clovis, Blanche’s true love in the drama ratings hit Blanche. Like Avanti Cine Video’s popular sitcom, La Petite vie, Santa Maria will be shot in front of a studio audience – two live tapings per episode – beginning March 15.

The series mixes romance with comedy and substance abuse recovery and is set in a detoxification center. Leading players include Christine Seguin, Rita Lafontaine, Raymond Bouchard (Scoop), Bernard Fortin, Louise Turcot and Jean-Pierre Charland. Michel Beriault is directing and Johanne Seymour is the scriptwriter.

Foglia makes his debut

max Films producer Roger Frappier will produce Manuel Foglia’s feature film directorial debut, L’avaleur de sable, based on the novel by Stephane Bourguignon. The book’s strong cinematic appeal motivated Frappier to take on the project, along with the need for more support for first-time Quebec directors and writers.

Bourguignon’s critically acclaimed first novel is about a twentysomething unemployed male worker who runs away from life and emotions following the death of a friend.

Foglia, the son of acerbic La Presse columnist Pierre Foglia, was one of the brighter lights in the Radio-Canada competitive documentary program, La Course Destination Monde. This innovative program broadcasts the tapes of eight young videographers during their 182-day odyssey to all parts of the globe.

The film’s title is undetermined, but it will be shot over four seasons, says Frappier, starting later this summer.

Win-win situation

micheline Lanctot’s small-budget film Deux actrices is the winner of the Prix L.E. Ouimet-Molson, awarded to the best Quebec feature-length movie of 1993 as chosen by l’Association quebecoise des critiques de cinema, Quebec’s film critics association.

The award, which includes a $5,000 grant from Brasserie Molson O’Keefe, was presented in front of 800 guests at the closing night gala of the 12th edition of Rendez-vous du cinema quebecois, the annual Quebec film and video retrospective.

Produced by Lanctot (Sonatine) and Stopfilm on a shoestring budget of under $250,000, Deux actrices is a mix of fiction and reality, unfolding family drama and documentary video. Leading players are Pascale Bussieres (Blanche, La vie fantome) and Pascale Paroissien. The film has been invited to a number of international festivals, and at home is being distributed in repertory theaters by Max Films Communications.

The other big Rendez-vous winner this year is Michel Brault’s Mon amie Max, which won awards for: best actor, Genevieve Bujold; best screenplay, Jefferson Lewis; and most promising actor, Johanne MacKay, who tied with Louise Deslieres, star of Francois Bouvier’s Les pots casses.

Other winners are as follows:

Mario Bolduc won for best short film, Repas compris, and Jean Decarie for best video, l’Appat. Tying in the best medium-length film category were Jean-Louis Frund’s Dans ma fenetre and Helen Doyle’s Je t’aime gros, gros, gros.

Bruno Boulianne was named best new director in the short and medium-length category for his Un cirque sur le fleuve. Jean-Claude Martineau brought home the best film criticism prize for his critical essay on Esther Valiquette’s Le Singe bleu, published in Quebec film magazine, 24 Images.

Antoine Saito took the best still photography award for Deux actrices. Robert Favreau was this year’s winner of the aqrrct’s Prix Lumieres for his long-standing defense of directors and their rights.

Rendez-vous prize sponsors included sardec, the Quebec screenwriters guild, Telefilm Canada, sogic, Astral, pay-tv movie service Super Ecran, Malofilm Distribution and Fuji Film Canada.

As for Mon amie Max, the press is calling it ‘an instant classic’ and veteran director Brault a man ‘at the summit of his career.’

After two weeks on five screens, Mon amie Max had earned close to $25,000 at the box office.

Brault’s son, Sylvain, was the film’s dop and Francois Dompierre prepared the classically inspired music. Verseau International’s Aimee Danis produced in association with Yves Rivard of the nfb. Brault, Lewis and Bujold teamed successfully on an earlier Verseau tv movie, Les noces de papier. The film’s distributor is C/FP Distribution.