Despite placing in Canada’s top 10 films at the box office in the past year, Histoires d’hiver producer Claude Gagnon of Aska Films says he is somewhat disappointed by the film’s performance.

‘It has a wide appeal and everyone who sees it loves it,’ says Gagnon, who shares production credits with Yuri Yoshimura-Gagnon.

Gagnon says he received the novel Histoires d’hiver by Marc Robitaille in the mail several years ago, but didn’t even read it. However, several people in his office picked up the book, read it and reported that it was fantastic. It was then that Gagnon read the book, ‘was seduced by it,’ and contacted the author to turn it into a script. Director Francois Bouvier then came on board and cowrote the script with Robitaille.

Filmed in and around Montreal, Histoires d’hiver is an adult story firmly set in the mid-1960s, seen through the eyes of a young, hockey-obsessed boy. The film stars Joel Drapeau-Dalpe, Denis Bouchard as the kid’s adoring uncle, Diane Lavalle as his mom, Suzanne Champagne and Sylvie Legault.

‘The danger of this story was that it could have been too sweet, something I don’t like at all,’ says Gagnon. ‘It is heartwarming, but it is for adults, more of a film d’auteur, not a family film, and it has a great unique sense of humor. It is a very free adaptation of the book, but it has the same unique outlook and freshness of the book.’

Histoires d’hiver was released in French Canada last February by Behaviour Distribution (now Seville Pictures). Behaviour invested $260,000 in the film’s p&a, with a television and radio campaign, various sponsors and a promotional tie-in whereby the public could win tickets to a Canadiens-Boston Bruins hockey game.

Nonetheless, there’s a possibility that Histoires d’hiver may be rereleased in Quebec and/or released in English Canada with subtitles in 2000. ‘It is something that we are discussing,’ says Gagnon. ‘I would like to see it released in English Canada. It has a broad appeal, and as this nomination shows, it is a noteworthy film that deserves a large audience.’