confessions | Luc Picard wins his bet ★★★ ½

To the already difficult task of bringing the destiny of a criminal to the screen, Luc Picard added an additional challenge: to interest the viewer in the astonishing story of the prolific hitman Gérald Gallant, despite the very beige personality of a seemingly uneventful man.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

The one who is said to have the highest number of assassinations in Quebec on his sinister list – 28 murders and around fifteen attacks – has absolutely nothing to do with the profile of a Henry Hill in Goodfellasnor, moreover, with any of the characters who marked the cinema of Martin Scorsese, any more than with the mafia of the Godfather.

By bringing Sylvain Guy’s script to the screen (Blacklist, mafia inc.), freely inspired by a book published by journalists Éric Thibault and Félix Séguin, Luc Picard focuses instead on trying to understand – without however giving answers – how such an “ordinary” guy, from a poor on all counts, was able to kill so many strangers in cold blood. In this regard, the actor Picard delivers a dazzling performance, insofar as he manages to translate with great sobriety the inner world of a guy for whom the only way to integrate a group – and to be appreciated by it – is to perform well the work that he is asked to do. He thus sees his role as that of a soldier with a mission to accomplish, the people to be killed being in his eyes “bad people”.

A great paradox

That is to say that we echo here the great paradox of a man who, on the one hand, can kill point-blank someone whom a criminal organization wants to make disappear without feeling any kind of emotion, but capable of vibrate in the other aspects of his life. Luc Picard brilliantly maintains this balance, in addition to evoking very accurately the character’s stutter.

confessions works on the basis of a film noir – sometimes tinged with humor – in which certain peripheral characters also have the opportunity to distinguish themselves. We should also remember the performances of David La Haye, remarkable in the skin of the accomplice with the well-hung tongue, of Sandrine Bisson in the role of the one who would like to become the Bonnie of her Clyde, of Éveline Gélinas as a wife who knows nothing of the activities her husband, as well as Catherine De Léan and Louise Portal. The latter both embody the role of Gérald’s mother, cruel to her son all her life.

Beyond the murderous activities of the protagonist, illustrated in a dry and uncompromising way, Luc Picard also paints a portrait of petty crime emerging from the poorest fringes of Quebec society. The story is built around the testimonies given by Gérald Gallant during the numerous interrogations to which he had to submit to a sergeant (Emmanuel Charest) after his arrest.

Sober and efficient, in keeping with the tradition of the genre, confessions is a well-acted, solidly produced film that will delight fans of the genre.

Note also the quality of the musical score, composed by Daniel Bélanger. The latter also signs the second soundtrack of his career, 17 years later The hearingby the same Luc Picard.

Indoors

Drama

confessions

Luc Picard

With Luc Picard, Eveline Gélinas, Emmanuel Charest

1:49

★★★½