Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Guillaume Lonergan made his debut with short films for the Kino organization at the turn of the 2000s. He was also a filmmaker-trainer with Aboriginal communities with Wapikoni Mobile. He has signed several documentaries that explore the reality of the First Nations. After directing children’s fiction for TV and the web (in particular The side effect, VRAK life)Lonergan signed the last season of Can you hear me ?as well as, more recently, the series Audrey came back and The brotherhood.
Q. The premise of The brotherhood may seem like a “false good idea”: a thriller inspired by Bonhomme Carnaval! However, the reviews of the series, broadcast since January, are very good. Did you hesitate before accepting the project?
R. Not at all. When Eric Belley [producteur chez Comédie Ha] called me, I was in the juice spinning Audrey came back. I didn’t want to work on another series right away. He told me the story in five minutes over the phone. I said, “OK, I’ll call you back in an hour. I found the idea completely crazy and very risky. A parody, a black comedy inspired by Bonhomme, it’s not easy. But taking risks is a value that dictates my choices.
Q. In a newspaper interview The sun during the filming of The brotherhood, you enthusiastically underlined the fact that more and more series are being shot outside Montreal. Is it important for you that our television production reflects the whole reality of the Quebec territory?
R. Yes, and we should take inspiration from our American neighbors. One of my favorite series, The Wiredtakes place in Baltimore; breaking Bad takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In Quebec, we shoot a lot in Montreal and its suburbs. This is understandable, because the industry is based in Montreal; it is a practical and economical question. However, for a director, it is interesting to be able to go to Sorel, as with Audrey came backor in Quebec (The brotherhood). It’s great that series are filmed all over the province. There should be more taking place in Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Gatineau, etc.
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Set of a scene from the series The brotherhoodtour in Charlesbourg, in November 2021
Q. Your experience with Wapikoni Mobile undoubtedly influenced this curiosity for the territory?
R. Yes, a lot. This experience changed my perception of the profession, but above all my vision of the country. I have traveled all over Canada. I lived in aboriginal communities for several months. I was discovering another Quebec within Quebec. Culturally, linguistically, politically.
Q. For several years now, as a screenwriter, you have been working on a film which recounts the youth of pilot Gilles Villeneuve, with director Daniel Roby. Is the shooting coming soon?
R. We are still funding it. We finished the script, we had auditions, but it’s a complex, long-term project, with a co-producer and a large budget. We want to be able to start it as soon as possible.
Q. Screenwriter, is it a role you like?
R. I believe in the symbiotic relationship between authors and directors. I don’t need to have written the screenplay to feel personally invested in a film. To want to bring someone else’s universe to the screen. There are a lot of great movies whose director didn’t write the script. Martin Scorsese wrote very few screenplays in his film career. However, he still makes very personal films.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Audrey came back is offered on Club Illico.
Q. Moreover, for a long time, the role of the screenwriter was little valued in the cinema. We swore only by auteur films, directors. In television, it was the opposite: we were talking about a soap opera by Lise and Sylvie Payette, a series by Fabienne Larouche and Réjean Tremblay. How do you explain that ?
R. At the time of ladies of hearts, the director’s signature did not appear on the screen. The visual bill changed little from one episode to another. But today, the signature of the directors matters as much in television as in the cinema. And in Quebec, we are producing more and more very visual, polished series that bear the director’s signature.
Q. The day after his death at Christmas, you paid a nice tribute to Jean-Marc Vallée on Facebook. Like many colleagues, you admired Vallée. Was he a big influence?
R. Jean-Marc Vallée was a model, because he constantly questioned himself. If we look CRAZY and Dallas Buyers Club, they are two very different films from the point of view of the realization. From one film to another, he knew how to develop a new way of filming; less heavy, with the least possible lighting, by improvising with its actors. Jean-Marc Vallée had a real artistic approach. And an approach evolves over time. I also like that, being versatile, changing aesthetics with each project.
Q. With the pandemic, we are living in a golden age of platforms, of digital giants. Do you believe that algorithms will end up murdering the public imagination?
R. Unfortunately, yes. I make a lot of children’s series, and I see more and more parents in Quebec who only show foreign shows, translated, on Netflix to their children. I’m a bit worried about our culture, about our television. If a generation of children no longer watch our TV, because they’ve gotten used to just watching Netflix, they won’t be curious to see it as adults. We will lose them for good.
Q. In an interview in the newspaper Humanity, the filmmaker Claude Lelouch said that he had changed his way of filming with the appearance of new technologies. Is this your case?
R. New technologies are tools that offer us more possibilities. Of course, the popularity of smart phones has brought a democratization of creation. But at the end of the day, making a movie hasn’t changed that much in 50 years. We still do series with marks on the floor and a valve. The important thing will always remain how to tell a story.