A summer like this | Beautiful actress challenges

With his unique vision and his singular approach to cinema, Denis Côté offers a film that frankly and delicately explores themes related to sexuality, without any moral judgment. We wanted to discuss it with Larissa Corriveau, Laure Giappiconi and Aude Mathieu, the three actresses who, in A summer like thisembody young women leading sexual lives “out of the ordinary” in the eyes of society.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

The “hypersexual” young women you play in the film agree to voluntarily participate in a workshop that is more of a study than a therapy, during which they are invited to retire to the countryside in the company of two speakers for 26 days. How did you react when Denis Côté made this proposal to you?

Laure Giappiconi: Already knowing Denis’ work, I was very curious to see how he was going to approach these themes. I knew he could thwart all the codes and clichés usually associated with eroticism in cinema. I had no apprehension because I have complete confidence in him.

Aude Matthew: I am the last arrival on the project. The role was already defined and the scenario was already written when Denis called me. I approached my character more as an acting challenge, because it is far from my natural energy. It gave me the opportunity to go touch something new.

Larissa Corriveau: I obviously had a lot of questions at the start, but this is my third project with Denis [après Répertoire des villes disparues et Hygiène sociale]. He spoke to me a lot about his questions about the modesty found in Quebec cinema. I did not see any outburst of provocation on his part, but rather a desire to explore the areas of female sexual desire by completely assuming his ignorance. We talked a lot. He was very open, very attentive to the comments of all the women who surrounded him in this project. I sensed in him a real curiosity towards this facet of the human experience.

Une fois sur le plateau, comment cela s’est-il passé concrètement ?

Aude Mathieu : Le fait de tourner dans un même lieu, avec une petite équipe, crée forcément un climat de proximité. Tout a été fait dans le plus grand respect. Nous avions déjà tellement discuté de tous nos questionnements auparavant qu’au moment du tournage, il y avait quelque chose de rassurant.

Laure Giappiconi : Nous avons aussi été impliquées dans le processus créatif, ce qui crée un véritable échange.

Larissa Corriveau : Sincèrement, c’est un privilège de pouvoir s’engager dans un tel dialogue et de travailler avec quelqu’un qui ne précipite rien, ce qui va à l’encontre des tendances de l’industrie. On dirait qu’on a toujours de moins en moins de temps partout, y compris au théâtre, mais Denis résiste. Avec lui, les rencontres s’établissent sur un plan humain avant toute chose.

On parle beaucoup de sexualité dans Un été comme ça, il y a aussi beaucoup de nudité, mais jamais montrée dans un contexte érotisant. Vous avez beaucoup discuté de la façon dont vous seriez filmées ?

Larissa Corriveau : Dès le départ, quand Denis m’a dit qu’il y aurait beaucoup de nudité dans son film, j’ai accepté à la condition que la densité humaine des personnages soit égale à la quantité de nudité exposée ! Mais, le connaissant, et connaissant son cinéma, je n’avais pas à hésiter.

Laure Giappiconi : Et puis, Denis sait d’où il vient et il a fait vachement attention. Il a pris beaucoup de précautions. Et nous, on sait ce qu’on veut et ce qu’on ne veut pas. C’est une discussion entre adultes, en fait.

Aude Mathieu : Il y avait aussi la caméra de François [Messier-Rheault], always very close, but who never fell into voyeurism. We played between us, the actresses, but also with the camera. Always in kindness.

Larissa, your character, Léonie, takes advantage of a day off to treat herself to a session of shibari, an extreme erotic art inspired by an old Japanese bondage technique. This results in a visually and emotionally very strong scene. How did the actress that you are prepare to shoot this scene?

Larissa Corriveau: This scene, a bit apart, was my gateway to the character. This is why there was never any question of resorting to a stunt double. To test my ability to do it and see where my limits are, I practiced for almost a year before shooting. I obviously had a lot of apprehensions and prejudices, but what this practice generates on an emotional level is very strong. From the moment you are tied up like this, your life completely depends on the person who accompanies you. Surprisingly, the idea of ​​not being able to do anything more then becomes restful. It’s like total surrender. I was surprised because I couldn’t have guessed it intellectually before experiencing it physically. What is beautiful in this scene is that we have completely moved away from clichés à la Fifty Shades of Gray. I consider it to be one of my best filming experiences, because it’s unlike anything else. When I saw the film, I found the sequence more suffocating to watch than to do!

What do you remember from your experience on this feature film?

Aude Matthew: Before filming, there was great anxiety, especially since we shot the scenes where I was alone for the first two days. As soon as I joined the others, I felt a great sense of calm. It was my first experience in a feature film and I am now trying to apply what I learned there in my everyday life, especially on the notion of trust. This was a great lesson for me.

Laura Giappiconi: From the very first exchanges to the finished film, going through all the conversations we had and the stages of writing, there is a kind of common journey, marked by honesty, sincerity, something very true , that nothing and no one can take away from us.

Larissa Corriveau: A sense of accomplishment after being offered a role that requires us to push ourselves to our limits. This film makes me very proud.

A summer like this hits theaters August 19.