In 1979, the noose tightened around a contract killer working under the orders of Claude Dubois, boss of the underworld in southwestern Montreal. After being compromised in a case of double murder, Donald Lavoie finds himself hunted down as much by his clan as by the police authorities.
A few months after the release of confessionsa successful film by Luc Picard in which we managed to make interesting the career of contract killer Gérald Gallant, a type who could not be more “ordinary” in his life, here comes now Twilight for a killer. Directed by Raymond St-Jean (A chair for an angel, Louise Lecavalier – On her fire horse) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Martin Girard (Nitro Rush, Saint Narcissus), this feature film is inspired by the life of Donald Lavoie, another contract killer who marked the history of crime in Quebec at the end of the 1970s.
Beyond the notorious fascination that this kind of story exerts in our collective imagination (the success of the series devoted to famous crimes on the platforms proves it), the fundamental difference between the two films lies in the very personality of the one around which the story is built. In this regard, Donald Lavoie could not be more different from Gérald Gallant, especially since the media of the time made him a star.
Raymond St-Jean rose to the challenge well, avoiding any glamorization of a man endowed with charisma, whose fall was as abrupt as his rise was rapid within the underworld of southwestern Montreal. The filmmaker of course lingers to describe the murders in which Lavoie was involved – which he shows very dryly, without any complacency – but the heart of his story is nevertheless found in the special link that the killer maintains with Claude Dubois. (formidable Benoît Gouin), his boss in whom he also sees a father figure. The story also takes a new direction when inspector Roger Burns (Sylvain Marcel, impeccable) arrives on the scene, who will turn Lavoie into an informant.
Punctuated by the hits of the time (we even made the effort to bring out the Censorship by Christine Charbonneau among the obvious by Michel Pagliaro, Nanette Workman and Renée Martel!), the feature film recreates the environment of the 1970s without however falling into caricature. This completely different world in terms of the media, where the newspaper Hello Police dominated the judicial news sector, even seems today to belong to another age.
Supported by a solid ensemble cast, Éric Bruneau imposes in the role of Donald Lavoie by revealing both the implacable nature of a killer capable of coldly executing orders, as well as the more fragile aspect of a individual in need of validation. Credible portrait of a monstrous being who does not however look like one.
Indoors
Drama
Twilight for a killer
Raymond St-Jean
With Eric Bruneau, Rose-Marie Perreault, Benoît Gouin
1:46