Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Several years before the producer Christian Larouche even came to measure his interest in the screenplay of confessions, written by Sylvain Guy from the book published by journalists Éric Thibault and Félix Séguin, Luc Picard was interested in Gérald Gallant. He had also begun writing a screenplay about the most prolific hitman in Quebec, who later became an informer for the police.
“As a character, I find that Gallant is an object worth investigating,” says Luc Picard during an interview with The Press. This little gentleman doesn’t look like much, but he could walk into a restaurant and cold-bloodedly kill someone he didn’t know for $20,000. I met several criminals to prepare the film and they all told me the same thing: someone who can do that without getting screwed, without anything, it’s extremely rare. Gallant was appreciated by those who gave the contracts because they knew that with him the work would be done soberly, without error. »
The contradictions of a character
By signing as a filmmaker a fifth feature, very different in tone from the four previous ones, Luc Picard was well aware of the pitfalls that opened up before him by bringing to the cinema the life of a criminal whose murders, often committed in public , obviously affected many more people than the direct victims. In addition, the personality of this man living modestly in a small house in Donnacona, who could call the police to complain about a car passing too quickly in his street, also has a more “endearing” side.
“The contradiction of the character is real and was not invented by the cinema, specifies Luc Picard. I had access to hours and hours of interrogations. Gallant is like that. I also wanted the film to start with a scene where we see the real damage caused by his actions. I even wanted to shoot in one of the restaurants where a murder actually took place, but the owner refused because the event was too traumatic for him and his employees. I then understood how many collateral victims there were around Gallant’s crimes, who must be respected. »
If the facts surrounding the assassinations committed by Gallant – 28 in all – are true, confessions is also a fiction film. Apart from that of the protagonist (as well as that of the boss Maurice Mom Boucher), all the names have been changed.
“I have always found – and I still find – that fiction is made for flyers, to let the imagination and emotions float”, insists the man who signed the productions of The hearing, Babina, Esimesac and Mongol kings. “It’s done to transgress reality, in fact. We are freely inspired by a story to achieve a certain artistic freedom, without having to be handcuffed to reality. »
I have also expressly included at the very end a small excerpt from an interrogation with the real Gérald Gallant, which even contradicts a bit of what we have shown before. It’s a way of claiming the part of fiction.
Luc Picard
A huge challenge
Luc Picard could not meet the one to whom he lends his features in confessions. As a repentant witness, Gérald Gallant is serving his life sentence in a secret location. If he had had the opportunity, the actor would undoubtedly have requested an audience, even if his reason would certainly have suggested the opposite.
“When you meet a character who really existed and he opens up to you, you get stuck a little because, in a way, you become indebted to him. There, the question did not arise because it was absolutely impossible to meet Gérald Gallant. Ultimately, I could have corresponded with him in writing, but, no, I didn’t really want to. But if I had been able to meet him in person, I couldn’t have resisted, that’s for sure, despite everything I just said. »
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Producer Christian Larouche offered Luc Picard to bring a screenplay by Sylvain Guy to the screen.
As much for the director as for the actor, Gérald Gallant constitutes an enormous challenge. The filmmaker first had to orchestrate a film with rather logistically complicated scenes on a relatively modest budget for a feature film of its kind ($6.3 million). He also had to find a way to make the viewer want to follow a very beige character.
It should not betray the fact that Gallant is a flat man. How do you put someone on screen that you wouldn’t notice at all in real life and still make them interesting? Finding this balance was a great challenge, especially since there is an absence of humanity in this man. Looks like he’s missing something.
Luc Picard
Like a racing driver
In the same way that he recreated in the basement of the family home scenes from films he saw when he was a child, Luc Picard, well before the shooting, began to work on the character at home by looking at the recordings interrogations of Gérald Gallant. And then playing it.
“I wanted to get to pre-production by already owning it, so as not to have to think about it anymore,” he explains. Something organic sets in and you have the impression that the character then takes its own path. I even started to stutter in life. I’ve often acted in the films I’ve made, but never a character who is on all levels. It’s a dangerous narrative process – you can end up not seeing the character because he’s so present on the screen – but as I love composition roles, it was really too tempting for the actor! »
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, THE PRESS
Luc Picard has called on a few big names to compose the distribution of confessionsincluding Sandrine Bisson, Maxim Gaudette and David La Haye.
Surrounded by big names, notably David La Haye, Sandrine Bisson, Éveline Gélinas, Maxim Gaudette and Louise Portal, Luc Picard thus offers a portrait of Quebec criminal life in contrast to that, more glamour, which the cinema is usually inspired by. Through the portrait of Gérald Gallant, the portrait of poverty also emerges, on all levels.
Seen also at the cinema in the excellent Arsenault & Sonsby Rafaël Ouellet, as well as in the television series One way ticket (which earned him a Gemini award), Luc Picard will also go on stage next year to play Jean-Paul Riopelle under the direction of Robert Lepage. The game remaining his great love, the actor is really well served these days.
“We, the actors, are a bit like racing drivers, because we are still dependent on the tank that is passed to us. Worse the tank, that’s the role! »
confessions hits theaters July 20.