The excitement was palpable on Wednesday at the Maison symphonique, during the last day of filming for Chloé Robichaud’s third feature film, Happy Days. The film crew was assembled with around sixty extras, in addition to the musicians of the Orchester Métropolitain (OM), in order to shoot the last scenes, before starting post-production, which should extend until next January. .
Sophie Desmarais, who plays a conductor living in a toxic relationship with her father (Sylvain Marcel), was able to benefit from the advice of maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin to direct the musicians of OM. In addition to taking part in the filming, the latter interpret the musical extracts retained by the director, who preferred not to reveal titles. The head of OM, invited to the Summer Festival in Baden-Baden, Germany, this week, also acted as artistic and musical adviser.
“Yannick brought small details to make the film as realistic as possible,” says Chloé Robichaud, who claims to have worked on this project with the conductor for two years. “When we shot the rehearsal scenes, at the end of May, Yannick could guide me by telling me that it would be interesting to film such and such a musician – they are still around sixty. It helped me to know who was going to do what when, in order to put my camera in the right place. »
Explore another environment
After becoming interested in racing (Sarah prefers running2013) and politics (Country, 2016), Chloé Robichaud wanted to dive into a completely different environment, but one where women are still underrepresented: “I like entering environments, I like putting women in positions where you don’t see them. »
The filmmaker also wanted to mark a break with her other films, especially the staging. She therefore called, for the first time, on the director of photography Ariel Méthot (Tadoussac, by Martin Laroche). “It’s a film that’s very different from anything I’ve done before: people are going to be amazed. It moves all the time; we follow the path of someone who will get closer to emotion, and it’s as if I had done the same thing with my staging. “She even says that Ariel Méthot “danced on the stage with his camera to the rhythm of the music”, going so far as to nickname him “the man who dances”.
As for Sophie Desmarais, this is not her first experience with Chloé Robichaud, since she had held the title role in the director’s first feature film, Sarah prefers race, who made her known in 2013. “Sophie quickly imposed herself, because she is one of the actresses who has the most interiority”, indicates the director. ” As in Sarah prefers running, there are so many things happening through his eyes. When Emma [son personnage] leads, there are no words, just his intentions, his gaze. »
A cut down to the hair
Chloé Robichaud also affirms that she imagined very early, during writing, the character of Emma with short hair, to create a contrast with the previous roles of the actress. “A female conductor’s role is something rare in the history of our cinema. I felt like marking this cut, even by the hair,” she explains.
Happy Days also stars Sylvain Marcel, Nour Belkhiria, Maude Guérin, Yves Jacques, Vincent Leclerc, Katherine Levac and Jean-Philippe Baril-Guérard.
The film’s producer, Pierre Even, of Item 7 (CRAZYby Jean-Marc Vallée; Maria Chapdelaine, by Sébastien Pilote), was also present that day at the Maison Symphonique. He even had his moment of glory by acting as a stand-in for Yves Jacques for a few shots.
“We knock on wood for the film to be selected at festivals,” says Pierre Even. Happy Days is set to hit theaters in fall 2023.
With Manon Dumais