Montreal editor Richard Comeau finds himself up for his second Genie Award nomination, this time for his work on the feature Maelstrom, Canada’s hope for Oscar consideration as best foreign film.

Comeau says he prefers projects based more on story than action, and particularly enjoys working with director Denis Villeneuve. The two collaborated previously on Cosmos, the 1996 compendium of Montreal short stories for which Villeneuve directed a segment entitled ‘Le Technetium’. Cosmos was produced by Roger Frappier, for whom Comeau has also cut La Comtesse de Baton Rouge (which yielded his other Genie nom in 1997), 2 Secondes and Maelstrom.

Comeau says his criteria for accepting a gig is a balance of both director and screenplay.

‘Even if you really like the director as a person or for his or her style, if you don’t like the script it’s going to be hard to bring anything to it,’ he says. ‘But mostly the people you get along with in terms of style are also people you share tastes with in stories. I’ve never gotten a script from a director I like and not liked the script.’

And he immediately liked Villeneuve’s script for Maelstrom, whose dark quirks include a fish on the butcher block as narrator. Comeau says he is seduced by off-the-wall ideas, and has agreed to work on an even crazier Frappier project entitled Comment ma mere accouche de moi pendant sa menopause, provided its financing comes through.

‘In this case I don’t know the director [Sebastien Rose],’ Comeau says. ‘He’s never made any features and I’ve never seen any of his work, but the script is so enticing that I decided to do it no matter what.’

What is also important to Comeau is his dynamic with a director, and he appreciates the fact Villeneuve allows him a good deal of artistic freedom.

‘With Denis I have the latitude to do a real editor’s cut, in the sense that I can really take a lot of liberties with the material,’ he says. ‘Denis likes to be surprised, even if I move one of his scenes 10 scenes forward or back. If it works for him he’s really delighted to be surprised that way.’

In other words, the film that makes it to the screen is not exactly the one conceived on paper, although the spirit remains intact.

‘As [Maelstrom] is now, it’s more of a tale than it was in the script,’ Comeau says. ‘There was a lot of water imagery in the script, but it wasn’t as prominent – Denis had the footage but wasn’t going to use it. When I did the first cut he was not expecting to see it, but I thought it really brought forward the whole ‘fish story’, the whole tale aspect of the film.’

Comeau, who works exclusively on Avid Film Composer, says his first step is usually to assemble a version that includes all the dialogue and action that was shot. The director then stays away – in Villeneuve’s case, for six weeks – and then comes in and the two proceed to streamline and form a dramatic rhythm.

Comeau says Villeneuve recognizes how a film can be rewritten in the editing room, and as a result provides his editor with many coverage options.

‘That’s one of the reason’s Denis’ films are fun to edit,’ Comeau says. ‘We could have made 10 films with that footage.’

Comeau also recently worked on Mechant Party for writer/director Mario Chabot. Unfortunately, the unassuming Quebec film, which bore some resemblance to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, was not as well received as Maelstrom.

‘It’s an unpretentious little comedy that got really bad press for no apparent reason, because it’s not any worse than your usual cheap comedy,’ Comeau says. ‘There’s a critic for the Montreal Mirror who put it right. She wrote ‘It’s a good film for what it is’, but here the French press really went ballistic on it. I guess it was one film like that too many last year.’

Comeau has a lot on his plate in coming months. He is currently working at Animavision on a documentary entitled Touch: The Forbidden Sense for Max Films, to be followed by L’ange de goudron for director Denis Chouinard, which goes into production in January. *