The idea is intriguing: adapting the 1970 film to the theatertwo golden women, in which two queens of the household free themselves from their soporific daily life by frolicking with itinerant traders and passing workers. What’s more, this piece will then be transposed to the big screen. It’s because playwright and screenwriter Catherine Léger “loves everything” in Claude Fournier’s feature film, co-written with Marie-José Raymond. Its characters, its madness, its freedom, its humor, of course, but above all the fact that it approaches female desire in a comedic rather than tragic tone. Here, no unplanned pregnancy, abortion, sexual assault or heroine punished for her impulses as Madame Bovary and her literary colleagues were. What fun!
The characters never say what we expect. Katherine [Léger] is really not in the right mind. She has a unique look, different from anything you can see at the moment; it tugs at us and that’s what I like.
“I have the impression that we perhaps did not have the tools, at the time, advances Catherine Léger, to realize that it was really unusual to show female sexuality like this. » Pendulums that the author of Baby sitterof girls on the loose and the film script Charlotte has fun, among other things, hopes to bring it back on time. In the opinion of Isabelle Brouillette, who interprets on the boards Florence (figure succeeding Fernande by Monique Mercure), the playwright proceeds from a feminist position which is specific to her: “She is annoying. His characters are not perfect women. They can like to lie, to be a little crooked because they find that it gives paying roles in the theater. But why would they be reserved for guys? “And his accomplice, Sophie Desmarais, who plays Violette (following Louise Turcot), to add: “The characters never say what we expect. Catherine is really not in the well-thinking. She has a unique look, different from anything you can see at the moment; it tugs at us and that’s what I like. »
The two actresses have no doubt that the show will shake the public, because they themselves do not come out unscathed. After having worked on the piece twice – the last closure of the rooms for pandemic reasons having forced its postponement – “we continue to have discussions which confront us”, recognizes Sophie Desmarais, “which challenge us in our own lives”, specifies her partner in crime.
It must be said that this playful study on the loss of desire within the couple, which Léger has been fine-tuning for several years now, has been enriched with other themes. To justify the fact that the protagonists find themselves idle between the four walls of their homes, while the profession of housewife is no longer the norm, it was necessary to imagine plausible circumstances. Thus, Violette is on maternity leave, while Florence tries to recover from professional burnout. The author took this opportunity to discuss the effects of antidepressants and lactation on hormones, and therefore on libido… and to introduce the subversive refusal of these ladies to submit to them. “One stops taking the medication that should make her ‘functional’, and the other stops breastfeeding. However, there is enormous pressure, in our society, to breastfeed as well as to be well, to be effective. We are in a very rigid time in this regard. The goal: to succeed in life. A notion that repels the playwright, who struggles to believe that success inevitably leads to happiness. “It’s like a hit of drugs: you achieve something, there, you have the impression that you have succeeded, that you have fulfilled yourself, but it is ephemeral and, afterwards, it starts again. The quest is endless. »
From screen to stage… and back to screen
Catherine Léger, who saw her play Baby sitter adapted to the cinema by Monia Chokri last year, says she is “happy to have made the detour via the theater” before her two golden women be the subject of a feature film. “It gave me extra freedom. I feel like the constraints of the theater meant that I blew up the dialogue. There weren’t that many in the film, whereas, on stage, everything goes through words. »
Biting and rhythmic exchanges that Isabelle Brouillette and Sophie Desmarais say they enjoy. “It’s very rare, a text like that, it’s enjoyable”, says the latter, who also admits to liking the fact that women are not “objectified” in the representation of their sexuality, contrary to what she perceived of Fournier’s film: “It’s about taking a position that is feminine. And I think that difference is really noticeable. We are not trying to stir up the viewer’s desire. We’re not in there at all. »
If the director Philippe Lambert directs – with sobriety and precision, according to our three interviewees – the play, whose distribution is completed by Steve Laplante, Mathieu Quesnel and Charlotte Aubin, it is the filmmaker Chloé Robichaud who will take over at the ‘screen. The director of Sarah prefers running (2013) and Country (2016) also participated in the production of comedy television series such as Too And Leo. “People who do comedy and who also have a concern for the depth of female characters, it’s quite rare, and I think Chloé is one of them. She is, moreover, a big fan of the film, like me. I feel like it’s a match perfect”, explains the one who was recently elected municipal councilor of Wentworth-Nord and who will now devote herself, in parallel, to her new part-time position and to writing. Is it surprising that the author, who for several years has been dividing her time between this small town in the Laurentians and Montreal, wanted to get involved in her community? This would certainly be ignoring the vigor of the social concerns that transpire from his work.