After nineteen eighty one, 1987 And 1991Ricardo Trogi is currently filming the continuation of his adventures in 1995, a film that promises to be the most “funny” and “zany” of the lot. We were on set this week.
“Dear viewers, it is with great sadness that we must announce the disqualification of competitor Ricardo Trogi! » His crime? An “unequivocal” appreciation of the rock group Aerosmith, “easy music which is not part of the values or philosophy of the Course…”
We are on a television set of the show The raceand the one who pronounces these words is none other than Pierre Therrien, played here by Mickaël Gouin.
We guess that it is obviously a bad dream, or at the very least a hallucination of the main character, Ricardo Trogi.
“The film recounts my time on this show [La course destination monde, édition 1994-1995] “, comments the director, wearing his emblematic cap, on the sidelines of filming, in the former offices of the National Film Board (NFB), on the side of Highway 40. At the time, “I was doing a little anxiety, he laughs, because of a very strong medicine against malaria! “.
After recounting his childhood (nineteen eighty one), his teenage years (1987), then his adventures during his first backpacking trip in Europe (1991), Ricardo Trogi therefore continues his biographical fresco with his beginnings, laborious to say the least, in the wonderful world of filmmaking.
-
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The television set of the show The race
-
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Mickaël Gouin in the role of host Pierre Therrien
-
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Ricardo Trogi directs Mickaël Gouin.
-
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Francis-William Rhéaume (in the role of Jean-Michel Vidal), Maude Bouchard (Louise Racicot), Ricardo Trogi, Mickaël Gouin (Pierre Therrien) and David Leblanc (Michel Coulombe)
1/4
Note that if the Radio-Canada show which propelled the director’s career was slightly renamed for rights reasons, we kept the real names of all the other characters, well known to viewers (Pierre Therrien, but also judges Michel Coulombe, Louise Racicot and Manon Barbeau).
Nice detail: former cameramen from the show were recruited as extras. We will undoubtedly see them handling their imposing period cameras, here and there during the film.
“I was propelled to the end of the world,” says the director, who is going to film in Morocco next week (instead of Egypt, already too complicated in 1995), before going to Nepal, for his ultimate destination.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The cameramen and their vintage cameras!
And, without pretension, it’s very funny. It’s pretty solid. In any case, for me, it’s the one [des quatre] which I find the funniest.
Ricardo Trogi, director
For what ? Because technology, or rather the absence of technology, gives him a hard time. “We are a year before the internet! “, he argues. Before the generalization of cell phones (everyone here is “hooked” to their phone), without GPS, even less Facebook. “If you don’t call, you won’t hear from me!” », says the man who still remembers having to call his mother from abroad to hear her reports in one ear (his mother bringing the telephone – corded, of course – closer to a television!). That gives you an idea of the portrait.
“It was complicated! »
And the mandate was not the least: imagine arriving overnight in a foreign country, without speaking the local language, with a $500 “survival budget” per week. Imagine also having to find original subjects on site!
“It’s the little details that make it fun, the spectators will really be told what it was like for a “runner” to make a four-minute film. » Basically, we will have understood: “It was complicated! »
I’m not afraid of ridicule. I don’t take the bits where I’m most glorious. But I take the bits where I look the craziest.
Ricardo Trogi, director
And with 1995“that’s where I had the funniest things to tell.”
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Jean-Carl Boucher
A statement that Jean-Carl Boucher does not deny, who will play Ricardo Trogi again and to his greatest joy, and for the fourth time.
“I think so,” he agrees. Definitely. It’s very crazy, and right from the start! »
It must be said that his character, in his mid-twenties, is still just as goofy. “Yes, he often gets his foot in trouble. He is well-intentioned, but clumsy! »
The actor takes the opportunity to underline “the real happiness” he has in working with Ricardo Trogi again. “I’m glad I knew someone as good as him at such a young age! […] It really clicked. […] And we have a bit of the same humor! »
Among other blunders and technological glitches, his character will lose his camera in Egypt, he confides. “And it’s fun for the public to see someone who gets into so much trouble. He has a clear mission, but he is incapable of fulfilling it. There’s a lot of humor there: each scene has its own problem! »
If you are wondering what the musical selection of the film will be, know that the director has made a list of “110 songs”, but that his choices have not yet been finalized. “It will be a surprise, and it’s more fun that way! », he concludes. To be continued, then, in theaters next summer.