The Outlander

Montreal: Les Films Vision 4 is turning author Germaine Guevremont’s 1940’s Quebec love story Le Survenant into a $6.6-million feature film, directed by Erik Canuel (Nez Rouge, Le Dernier Tunnel). With production dates spread across three seasons in 2004, the 48-day shoot started in early March and wraps in late October.

‘It’s a period piece, set in 1910, but there are social comparisons to today’s modern immigrant experience,’ said Jacques Bonin of Vision 4, who produces the film with colleague Claude Veillet, with additional financing for the project coming from Radio-Canada, Super Ecran, Telefilm Canada and SODEC. Vivafilm is handling distribution, with May 2005 as the target release date.

‘Everyone in Quebec knows the story – we all read it in secondary school,’ says Bonin (La Florida, La Loi du cochon). ‘The book was made into a television show in the 1950s, but it’s long-forgotten. We used the book as the source.’

Le Survenant is about a small village that adjusts to the arrival of a free-spirited traveler who throws their provincial lifestyles into question. The traveler, called Le Survenant (Jean-Nicolas Verreault, La Loi du cochon), stays with a family headed by Didace Beauchemin (Gilles Renaud, Gaz Bar Blues). The family’s daughter, Angelina (Anick Lemay, Le Dernier tunnel ) falls in love with the new farm hand, who isn’t the type to settle down.

‘He’s like a Jack Kerouac who stays,’ says Bonin, who acquired the book’s rights from Guevremont’s 80-year old daughter. ‘Le Survenant translates roughly into The Outlander or The Highlander. Some of the villagers like him, some don’t. His free spirit threatens some of the local people.’

The book’s original exterior locations were used for the first leg of the shoot, on L’Isle Dupas, while most interiors were shot in Montreal studios. The Sorrel market scenes, however, were reproduced on a backlot on Rachel Street on the Plateau Montreal.

‘We needed a robust guy for the role of Le Survenant,’ says Bonin, who hired Diane Cailhier to adapt the 213-page book into a screenplay. ‘Jean-Nicolas Verreault is perfect. It’s our second time working with Jean-Nicolas, after La Loi. He’s an imposing guy, at six feet four inches, and he has a big highlander-type presence. For Angelina’s role, we chose Anick Lemay because we all know and love her from television shows and now movies.’

In keeping with the period piece, Le Survenant makes much use of candlelight, which led to some difficult end-of-day shoots for DOP Bernard Couture. It is director Canuel’s first period film.

‘To me, Erik’s a mix of Ridley Scott and Sergio Leoni,’ jokes Bonin. ‘He loved it.’ Joanne Latimer