Jean-Marc Vallee’s thriller Liste Noire topped all other Quebec films at the box office this year with a 34-print launch and receipts in the $1 million range in less than 10 weeks.

Produced by Marcel Giroux of GPA Films and distributed by a revived Astral Films, Liste Noire tells the story of a upscale call girl who threatens to reveal the names of her well-heeled clients.

Director Vallee, nominated for a best direction Genie for this, his first film, says he and screenwriter Sylvain Guy did not have a specific target audience in mind as they prepared the film.

‘When Sylvain was doing the writing he said he wanted to create a thriller and have some fun with it. When I read it I said, `Alright, we’ll make a thriller and play with the public. We’ll put them on the wrong track and make them afraid.’

‘We said to ourselves, `You have to be a little bit adolescent to do something like this.’ I mean to trip on thrillers, suspense films and Hitchcock and company you have to have some kind of adolescent side. It was a game we were going to play with the public, regardless of age.’

Liste Noire was shot on a budget of $1.2 million. ‘I would have liked to have had $3 million for the film,’ says Vallee. ‘I cut 50% to 60% of the dollies used for the film. I cut all the symmetry (design) elements. The film is set in a judicial setting (the homes of rich lawyers and judges) and I had visions of (the sort of setups used in) The Shining. I really wanted to have lots and lots of traveling dolly shots. I’m sure it would have given the film an additional signature.

‘I discarded 20 pages from the screenplay. It was 105 pages and we ended up shooting 85. And I would have liked it if we could have rehearsed more.’

Liste Noire had $990,000 in earnings at the box office after nine weeks. Astral Films launched the film with 34 prints and backed the release with trailers in theaters and on tv.

Producer Giroux says the film’s press relations were handled adroitly, adding, ‘Astral’s marketing campaign was massive.’

Giroux says the film’s marketing was a little less pretentious than the standard film d’auteur mind-set. He says the entire effort was based on the belief that there was a lack of popular entertainment, or genre-style films, being produced in Quebec.

‘The film-going public has developed habits and practices and there is no reason at all that we shouldn’t reply with a genre film, a suspense thriller, the sort of thing that hasn’t been exploited very much here,’ he says.

Giroux says Astral has foreign rights to the film, adding sales to tv and home video in Europe and South East Asia will definitely happen.

As for Liste Noire’s nine Genie nominations, including best picture, they may not influence the public too much, he says, but they will help confirm reputations within the industry.

Other Liste Noire Genie nominees are: Pierre Gill for best achievement in cinematography, director Vallee for editing, Serge Arcuri and Luc Aubry for best achievement original music score, Aubert Pallascio for best performance by an actor in a supporting role, Sylvain Guy for screenwriting, Daniel Masse, Luc Boudrias, Michel Descombes and Gavin Fernandes for best overall sound, and Louis Dupire, Martin Pinsonneault, Alice Wright, Diane Boucher and Francois Dupire for sound editing. Vallee is also nominated for the Claude Jutra Award.

Liste Noire was shot from Sept. 18 to Oct. 19, 1994 and was financed by SODEC-Quebec, Astral Distribution, French-track pay movie channel Super Ecran and gpa.

Vallee and screenwriter Francois Boulay are preparing a new feature project called Crazy, a contemporary family drama set in Quebec between 1945 and 1990.