For four seasons, screenwriter Joanne Arseneau and director Stéphane Lapointe delighted viewers with Miscellaneous facts, detective series with twisted plots and black humor where hemoglobin squirted at will. Always so creative and daring, the beloved duo will surprise more than one with his new offering, A criminal casehalf-hearted psychological thriller.
“I had something in my drawers, says the author, interviewed by videoconference after the presentation of the first two episodes of the series to the press. I wanted to go into this kind of universe, a little more dramatic, with the story of a heroine, a fighter, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary quest. With Stéphane, we thought we were going towards something that could have more humor, but it became something more tragic. »
This ordinary woman, brilliantly embodied by Céline Bonnier, is Catherine Godin, who has the gift of finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, who drinks more often than not and whose words sometimes go beyond thought. For 15 years, she has been fighting to clear her son, Alexandre (Maxime-Olivier Potvin), who is serving a 25-year sentence for the murder of a friend responsible for an accident that cost the lives of several of their friends. According to her, the Saint-Bruno police would have made a mistake about the person. Solidly camped by Louis-Philippe Dandenault, the investigator Benoît Inglis, “Bing”, with whom Catherine had an affair, knows things that he dares not confess.
“I was happy that Joanne still thought of me to continue her adventures, confides the director. For me, it’s like the first thing where there is no smirk. It gave me great pleasure to touch on a psychological drama, a moving human story, to be in the psychology of a character. Of course, there are little hints of humor; for Joanne, it’s stronger than her and for me too, because I like that. »
In fact, we find a certain earthiness in the characters, murderous replies, comical situations where we flirt with the absurd, the unusual: “I don’t like melodrama, so it’s sure I have to freak out from time to time. The special quality of Stéphane, for me, and it’s sweet, is that he walks well between the different tones that I prefer. »
suburban life
Like Miscellaneous facts, A criminal case takes place in a universe that seems closed in on itself, where everyone knows each other, where everyone hides dark secrets, where rumors are rife.
“I had the idea of a somewhat American-style drama. I was told today that we are often outside the major centers, reports Joanne Arseneau. I’m not saying that I will never go back there, but I found that this small community that revolves around a place where there is the construction of a housing complex, it was not necessarily done in the city center from Montreal. This place, called Nirvana, where we build to be happy for the rest of our lives, was built on misfortune. »
Through Catherine’s quest, Joanne Arseneau tackles racism head-on. Born to a Jamaican father, who died when he was very young, Alexandre has dark skin. When witnesses claim to have seen a young black man near the scene of the crime, he is, in the eyes of the police, the only suspect.
“We don’t do mileage on racism, it’s not a series on it, nuances the screenwriter. Obviously, we are talking about racial profiling, but Alexandre was also the perfect prey because he had said in front of a lot of people that he wanted to kill the person responsible for the accident. In fact, what I found interesting was that Catherine had always fought for this child, whom she had very young, to have him accepted. She has always had a difficult journey. »
Wishing to reinvent itself and move away from the aesthetics of Miscellaneous factsStéphane Lapointe has chosen to illustrate the tormented world of Catherine by drawing inspiration from the American cinema of the 1970s and the films of David Fincher.
“For the production, I wanted all the elements to be at the service of the story, at the psychological level of Catherine, he explains. I wanted a very sensual way, more sensitive, more poetic and more “feminine” than that of Miscellaneous facts to evoke all that Catherine feels. I didn’t want to do a cold police show. I really wanted to be on edge, in emotion. »
For her part, Joanne Arseneau reveals that she was thinking of the character of Frances McDormand, in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, drama by Martin McDonagh where the muse of the Coen brothers plays a mother tirelessly looking for the murderer of her daughter: “Of course I see things when I write, I launch leads, but when Stéphane arrives, he goes further away. It’s often more beautiful than I imagined. »
“Joanne creates a great playground where I try to bring out every element. I love working with her for that; it’s a super rich universe with great characters in twisted situations. With Frédéric Page in the artistic direction, Jonathan Cayer in the music and Vincent Gonneville in the photography, we wonder how we can tell this story, make it concrete, materialize it, and then we push the boat, we push the boat » , concludes the director.