Presented in 2019 at the Center du théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, Lines leakthird play by Catherine Chabot (Clean slate, In the field of love), gave little respite to the spectators with its share of murderous replies that the six cynical protagonists threw at each other. Although the film version proposed by Miryam Bouchard (My own circus) and Catherine Chabot, who signs her first feature film, is more hopeful, more than one will be disheveled by this grating portrait of Generation Y.
In fact, this meeting between friends, who are preparing to spend a memorable evening where they will tell each other their four truths, evokes who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?by Edward Albee, Beautiful Sundaysby Marcel Dubé, and The God of Carnageby Yasmina Reza, without forgetting The Decline of the American Empireby Denys Arcand.
“I write what I would like to see,” says Catherine Chabot, who we met a few hours before the film’s premiere. I like Yasmina Reza, the films of Cassavetes, those of Bacri and Jaoui. The whole rhetorical jousting of For a yes or for a no, a play by Nathalie Sarraute, speaks to me enormously. Of course, there is also Woody Allen with his slightly clumsy intellectual characters, encumbered by their fears, by their neuroses. I love the human psyche, I find it fascinating! »
” It’s sure that The decline… and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are references, but I was also thinking of Bottoms up, a play by François Archambault, tells Miryam Bouchard. Each generation has this discourse somewhere. We are talking about 30-year-old characters here, but I am going to be 50 and with my generation, we have experienced these crises, these questions. »
Addressing eco-anxiety and job insecurity, this existential dramatic comedy should therefore not only appeal to thirty-somethings: “The film can speak to everyone because there is no age to question, thinks Catherine Chabot, seen in Liarby Émile Gaudreault, with whom she wrote the screenplay for Vanishing lines. In your thirties, you wonder if you’re going to have children, if you’re going to get married, how you want to live your life, your sexuality, if you want to experience polyamory. Just because you’re 60 doesn’t mean you can’t ask yourself where your place is in the world. »
And also, what is his place in a group of friends: “We are not supposed to be in judgment in friendship, we accept everything from the other, believes Miryam Bouchard. In this group, something happened at some point, they stopped being on the same level. Everyone has experienced this. At 30, you’re tired of being what you were in high school. It’s always easier to change your skin, to be who you want to be without having all these witnesses to your journey. »
The gang of six
Vanishing lines features three high school friends, three couples and three social backgrounds. In all. six characters who would in fact be six facets of the playwright, who makes fun of her own shortcomings: “For me, laughter is a driving force. That’s how I get on in life. I have a rather intense sense of self-mockery. It’s a defense mechanism that allows me to take a closer look at myself by pointing out things that aren’t working. »
Not having left their native Saint-Georges de Beauce, Audrey (Catherine Chabot) and Jonathan (Maxime de Cotret), accountant and plumber respectively, lead a tidy life. A drooling columnist at Radio-Canada, Valérie (Léane Labrèche-Dor) lives as an open couple with Paul-Émile (Mickaël Gouin), a sociology lecturer. For her part, Sabina (Mariana Mazza, whom Miryam Bouchard compares to Coluche in Tchao Pantin) is cashing in like water and cooing on the arm of his new love interest, hip artist Amber (Victoria Diamond).
“For Catherine, it was important that we clearly see each character, that we see their faces; for me, it was to go get the flow of the group, stage it as if it were a single character, reveals Miryam Bouchard. For the realization, it was necessary to start with something very luminous, pop, champagne, bubbles, Instagram, and that the camera follows that. To shoot six characters almost always at the same time, I looked at the frames of Hannah and her sisters, by Woody Allen. Then it becomes more and more unbridled and quietly, we are heading towards something dark. »
It’s when the little gang arrives at Sabina’s luxurious condo that things get tough. Despite the cruelty of the verbal fights, a certain tenderness emanates between the adversaries of an evening. If Catherine Chabot reveals that Émile Gaudreault was the guardian of the DNA of the piece, certain changes have been made. Starting with Audrey, whom she played on stage alongside Léane Labrèche-Dor, and Victoria Diamond, who was initially as ruthless as Valérie. Then in the glimmer of hope that it lets appear at certain moments.
“The play was more cynical, more punchy, and the proposal was that the six characters speak at the same time, notes the filmmaker. In the cinema, the editing allows a point of view from the start, whereas in the theater, we choose who we watch. I wanted to show Montreal in the summer with its terraces, so that we feel it’s hot, how beautiful. I like all the characters, even when they are hateful; I wanted one last breath of air before they entered the condo. »
“In the meantime, I had a child, confides Catherine Chabot, so I wanted to let the light in a little more by revealing the intimacy of the characters. We meet them first individually, in different moments of vulnerability, then as a couple, in a trio, in a group. The masks are added the further we advance in the film, then they shatter. In the room, which is behind closed doors, we only had access to the front. I found it interesting to be able to add a layer of humanity to it. »
Vanishing lines hits theaters July 6.