Those who have never watched The race destination worldthis show in which participants were invited to travel alone to different regions of the planet while making short four-minute films, will have a hard time believing all the incredible adventures that Ricardo Trogi experiences in 1995the fourth installment in a series of feature films directly inspired by the filmmaker’s life.
So, after watching little Ricardo get into mischief during his last year of primary school, in nineteen eighty oneflirting with delinquency at the end of secondary school in 1987then fly off for a summer filled with misadventures in Italy with his beloved in 1991here he is back for one of the most life-changing experiences of his life.
In 1994, Ricardo, 25, gave up his dream of becoming a filmmaker. A traveling salesman, he accepted his destiny as an anonymous citizen. However, the tide turns when his application is selected among the finalists of the show The 1994-1995 edition of the race. From Nepal to Turkey, via China and Egypt, the young man will have twenty countries and a few months to demonstrate his know-how and prove to himself that he is a filmmaker. However, the adventure will not be easy…
“It’s been a long time since the idea of talking about The race was running through my head, says Ricardo Trogi, met by The duty ahead of the film’s release. It was a pivotal moment for me, a unique opportunity that allowed me to enter the profession. But I didn’t know how to condense six months, twenty films and twenty countries into an hour and a half. So I decided to channel my energy into a short film that I made during the Race, by far my worst experience, a perfect distillation of what I experienced and in which former runners will certainly recognize themselves.”
Burlesque epic
After a background, in which he describes the selection process and the principle of the televised competition, the filmmaker sets sail for Cairo, where his attempts to make a short film on excision are constantly rebuffed. Thus, Ricardo will be slowed down by a distraught lover who strives to win back his sweetheart with his help, by a hesitant actress, by the controversy that his subject arouses and by a broken camera that will lead him into the infernal whirlwind of Egyptian customs. A burlesque epic worthy of Twelve Tasks of Asterix.
“Almost everything I recreate in the film happened for real, that’s what’s great,” says Ricardo Trogi. “There’s nothing funnier than the truth. A guy really did come knocking on my bedroom door every morning so that I would go and shout his girlfriend’s name out of the window of his car. At Egyptian customs, I met 34 different people; two and a half times more than what I put in the story. When I wrote the original version, it was 44 pages long. I could never have invented what I experienced.”
Jean-Carl Boucher, who plays Ricardo Trogi and is too young to have watched the show, was amazed by the director’s anecdotes. “It seemed like such an intense experience. It was before cell phones and social media. The participants would go to unknown places with a few phone numbers in their pockets, not knowing if they would be able to reach anyone. In each destination, they had to shoot a film, make an editing plan, find a way to send it with the tapes to Montreal and believe in their vision and that the editors would understand it,” he says with a laugh. “The potential for comedy—and drama—is enormous when you have to figure it out on your own like that.”
To avoid another bureaucratic headache, the filmmaker — who also shot part of the film in Nepal — opted to recreate Cairo in Casablanca, Morocco. “Moroccans have a very famous film industry. They welcome Americans, Europeans, anyone who wants to reproduce the desert. They helped me find places that looked like the Egyptian capital. I worked with a Moroccan costume designer who dressed the extras like Egyptians. We also took precautions with the accent, even going so far as to modify the dialogue of an actress with artificial intelligence at the sound mixing stage. Even if there are only 2,000 Arabic speakers who see the film, I did it for the sake of truth.”
Towards the end of 1995Ricardo Trogi presents the entirety — with a new actress — of the short film that gave him all these nightmares. He also reproduces almost verbatim the comments of the judges — Manon Barbeau, Michel Coulombe and Louise Racicot — who had received it with several reservations. He thus demonstrates — as he does several times in the film — the refreshing self-mockery that only he knows the secret of.
“I didn’t want it to seem like an act of revenge,” the director says. “I wanted to explain with my eyes today how I understand now why the film had been more or less well received. With their permission, I reproduced the judges’ comments, I had them read the script. Even if the whole thing is still debatable – examining the subject rather than the artistic value of the work – I learned a lot about what you can and can’t do in documentary, and the tact that it requires.”
A magical adventure
According to the actors – who are reprising their roles for the fourth time – the filming was as magical an experience as the previous ones. Each of them mentions the fact that it is a privilege to play a character in the cinema for such a long period.
Jean-Carl Boucher was 14 when he first played Ricardo Trogi. He is now 30. “Initially, I put so much of myself into this character that I feel like I find myself every time, but with a significant amount of hindsight. I am always a little older than the protagonist. I relived my childhood, my adolescence, my beginnings in adulthood, all of that with my gang of friends. And I am lucky to have Ricardo on set, so expressive and energetic, who inspires me every day.”
Sandrine Bisson, back in the role of Ricardo Trogi’s endearing and eccentric mother, agrees. “Acting in these films taught me to work, to stay calm too. Ricardo is not afraid of making mistakes, I always felt really free on his set. And what a gift, this character, all love and flamboyance! I find it so liberating to say all the enormities that come out of his mouth.”
Whether this fourth episode will be followed by a fifth is a mystery. “You never know in advance, and that’s what’s wonderful,” says Sandrine Bisson. “All I know is that I hope to collaborate with Ricardo Trogi again.” “During each shoot, Ricardo told me anecdotes about his life that were then transformed into a film. It doesn’t mean anything, but it happened again this time,” laughs Jean-Carl Boucher. “I have ideas, but I’m not sure of anything,” concludes the filmmaker. “We’ll start by seeing if the audience is still there.” Let’s bet that will be the case.
The film 1995 hits theaters on July 31.