Considered by many to be the greatest contract killer in Canadian history, Donald Lavoie had an existence worthy of a Martin Scorsese film. Born in Chicoutimi, where he grew up in orphanages and foster families, in 1970 he joined the Dubois clan, a major Montreal criminal organization. Donald Lavoie does not take long to prove himself, and to become the most formidable contract killer of the gang. Twenty-seven people died under his bullets.
Despite its success, the confidence of the leader of the band, Claude Dubois, is fraying. Doubting his loyalty, he puts a price on his head. To escape certain death, Donald Lavoie turns to the police, allowing the dismantling and arrest of the leading heads of the Dubois clan, and making him Canada’s first informer.
No wonder, then, that this monstrous character fell into the eye of a filmmaker. Raymond St-Jean — best known for his documentary work (A chair for an angel [2015], Louise Lecavalier. On his fire horse [2017]) — was in his early twenties when Canadians learned of the existence of a highly organized criminal network in the country. Every week, the newspapers made their fat cabbage of assassinations, investigations, arrests.
“Even then, I was aware that there was a story to tell. A few years ago, when I wanted to return to fiction, Donald Lavoie seemed to me to be an ideal character. First thinking, because of technical and budgetary constraints, of writing a modern and completely fictional story, in which the contract killer would be forced to return to the criminal world, the filmmaker was persuaded by his co-screenwriter, Martin Girard, rather to recount three pivotal years in Lavoie’s career, during which he went from conqueror to pariah, then to informer.
The human behind the monster
This decision, brilliant from a cinematographic point of view, did not come without its share of ethical questions. “We were asked if the film glorified crime. I don’t think that’s the right question to ask, reflects Martin Girard. This character certainly does not deserve glory in the sense of a hero, but what he experienced marks a turning point in the history of crime in Quebec. It was for him that the Witness Protection Program was born. It is a story on the theme of rehabilitation. It was therefore essential for us not to pass judgment, but to allow the spectator to identify himself, to understand Donald Lavoie so that he could draw his own conclusions. »
Although the film does not obliterate violence, narcissism, greed, misogyny and abuse of power, the desire to humanize the character, to make him more complex, to reveal his torments, his doubts and his regrets, is present.
We were asked if the film glorified crime. I think that’s the wrong question to ask. This character certainly does not deserve glory in the sense of a hero, but what he experienced marks a turning point in the history of crime in Quebec. It was for him that the Witness Protection Program was born. It is a story on the theme of rehabilitation.
Finding the human behind the monster has also proven essential for Éric Bruneau to manage to slip into the skin of Donald Lavoie, to assume an interpretation that is also disarmingly authentic. “Initially, I only had two interviews and a book as material. It didn’t take me long to hit a wall. I couldn’t justify playing a psychopathic bandit that I didn’t understand and who just seemed to me motivated by violence. »
The actor then called on Luc Dionne, with whom he had worked on the television series bluemoon (2016-2018). “I was able to meet key people, who allowed me to understand a ton of business. Donald Lavoie constantly spoke of the fact that he had been abandoned by his parents. He was a great narcissist, that’s for sure, but he was also a child looking for his father. The public cannot identify with a killer, but with someone who needs validation, yes. I had my breach. He also consumed a lot, he needed to stun himself to continue, to carry out his missions. So I integrated that aspect into my game.”
Sobriety and discipline
To immerse viewers in the special atmosphere of the 1970s, Raymond St-Jean drew inspiration from the films, techniques and photography of the time. “I had a basic instruction: I don’t want brown, orange or yellow,” he laughs. We are therefore rather in the presence of tones of red, blue, steel which give a more sober, more authentic and lighter rendering.
“I saw works by Don Siegel, William Friedkin, Sam Peckinpah, people who worked in the natural environment, which had an almost documentary side. This led us not to impose technology on the film, to opt very often for a light, portable camera, and for direct lighting. The director of photography took the risk of shooting night scenes with high contrasts, like what lighting technicians used in the past, which gives a more raw side to the images. »
By replicating the successes of these renowned filmmakers, Raymond St-Jean also bet on a certain economy in the editing, on discipline rather than virtuosity. “Each plan has a function. Raymond knows how to capture looks, gestures, moving bodies. Few people manage to create such tension in the silences,” underlines Éric Bruneau.
As the story could not have taken place elsewhere than in Quebec, the co-writers also insisted that this Quebec specificity be underlined in several ways in the feature film, from the soundtrack – in which we can hear Renée Martel, Michel Pagliaro and Offenbach — to the images. “All four seasons are included in the film. We go from the heat of summer to the vibrancy of autumn. At one point, Donald Lavoie puts on snowshoes to cut a tree, evoking a woodsman. We wanted it to be nothing but a Quebec film,” concludes Martin Girard.
The film Twilight for a killer hits theaters March 10.