Drunk at the wheel of her luxury car, a woman stops on a country road. Not far from there stands an old isolated house advertising a room for rent. Unsteady, the one who says her name is Sophie presents herself there. Martin, the nephew of the hostess, receives her eagerly. Over the course of the following days, a troubled complicity will arise between these two beings, each of whom has their share of secrets. Adapted by Catherine-Anne Toupin from her play The packthe enigmatic psychological thriller Lucy Grizzly Sophie sees the playwright, screenwriter and actress reunite with her scene partner, Guillaume Cyr, in front of Anne Émond’s camera. Unveiled at the opening of the Rendez-vous Québec cinema on February 21, this is an excellent film about which the less we know, the better. Crosstalk.
“The trigger first came from my sister, who has a postdoctoral degree in communications and is specialized in social networks as tools for social uprisings,” explains Catherine-Anne Toupin.
What followed were visits to certain sites, certain forums where unprecedented and completely uninhibited sexist violence stunned Catherine-Anne Toupin.
“Added to this is the fact that at the time of the series Unit 9, after like five seasons of enduring the worst abuse and infamy, the character of Guylaine Tremblay committed an act of violence for the first time. The comments were then so strong and, yes, violent: I had never seen that. »
To continue Catherine-Anne Toupin, this aggression was directed as much against the actress as her character and the author of the series.
“It was as if, as long as a woman is a victim and she’s moping in her corner, we’re very comfortable with that, but as soon as she reacts and says ‘no,’ that she refuses this role, we become uncomfortable and we don’t know what to do with it. In short, the story results from the fusion of these two sources,” summarizes Catherine-Anne Toupin.
Thus was born this protagonist who had everything taken away from her, from her speech to her dignity, and who, one day, decides to say “no”… and take revenge.
After the creation of the play at La Licorne, where she was already opposite her future film partners Guillaume Cyr (Martin) and Lise Roy (Aunt Louise), Catherine-Anne Toupin set about writing a script . During the adaptation, however, she decided to use more of the mechanisms of suspense.
A genre style
Invited to read the first version, the filmmaker Anne Émond was immediately won over: “It was a real page turner », remembers the director of Night #1of the Loved ones and of Young Juliet.
“I kept asking myself, about Sophie: “But who is this woman! ? And what does she want?” It was so intriguing! And there, there is this punch at the end, and I was on my ass: it had changed the meaning of everything that had come before. But it also revealed a subject. In other words, it had all this slow-burn suspense, very entertaining, but with a real point to it. It’s rare for the two to come together. »
When Catherine-Anne Toupin and producer Félize Frappier offered her the chance to direct, Anne Émond did not hesitate for a moment, even though she would be directing, for the first time, a film written by someone other than herself.
“I found it strangely liberating,” confides Anne Émond. For example, when I did Nelly [librement inspiré de la vie de Nelly Arcan], I had on my shoulders the pain of his parents, his loved ones, the divergent perceptions about him… Whereas with this film, it was not my subject. It’s just a story I’m telling. »
A story that the filmmaker tells in this case with great style. Indeed, Anne Émond, by her own admission, was influenced by Gone Girl (Appearances), by David Fincher, but also by a host of thrillers from the 1980s-1990s, including Miseryby Rob Reiner.
“We really went there in the genre film. And it’s not just in relation to the setting, that is, this house deep in the woods. It is also the techniques associated with the genre: the close-up on the door handle which turns slowly, the push-in about the aunt who stares at Sophie a little too long, the landscape covered in mist, vaguely sinister… With Olivier [Gossot, le directeur photo]we had fun,” summarizes Anne Émond.
However, although the atmosphere may be skillfully crafted and the procedures carefully calibrated, the film would not work as well without the ease that Catherine-Anne Toupin and Guillaume Cyr have in constantly showing one thing, while allowing a glimpse of something else. Moreover, the character in the first is much more ambiguous than in the play.
“Anne led me towards a more mysterious approach, with a potential for danger brewing under the surface,” opines the actress.
For his part, Guillaume Cyr explains that if this “double game” came so naturally to him and Catherine-Anne Toupin, it is thanks to their common stage background.
“With the play that came before, once filming happened, it was like I had three years of rehearsal in my body,” notes the star of the film Arsenault and sonsby Rafael Ouellet.
“I’ve never had to play a character like this, who simultaneously has such a large part of light and such a large part of darkness. As an actor, you must then construct a psychology of the character, in order to reconcile that, to make it coherent. This is where the three years of background benefited the film. »
Say as little as possible
Having already played the characters on stage also helped the two performers to let go during a prolonged sequence of nudity, which occurs at a key moment in the story.
“We all have our pet peeves,” says Guillaume Cyr. I will admit to you that when I left the National Theater School, acting naked did not appear on my bucket list. When we performed the play at La Licorne, we found a way to suggest, but for the film, I had to go there all-in, Catherine-Anne too. That was my big challenge. Because there’s nothing worse than perceiving an actor’s discomfort: it takes you out of the film. So I had to get to this zone where I am the character, and the character is comfortable with that. »
Still in relation to this key sequence requiring the two performers to strip, Catherine-Anne Toupin specifies:
“The fact that Guillaume and I knew each other so well when we got there, and the fact also that we knew our respective characters intimately, that simplified everything. And there was this relationship of absolute trust with Anne. The look she had on us, with her camera…Anne makes us beautiful. »
Even if she readily admits that it is not easy to promote a film about which as little as possible should be said, Catherine-Anne Toupin says she hopes that the public’s curiosity will be piqued.
“It’s a story of revenge, and one wonders if Sophie’s decisions are all informed. But for me, it’s not giving answers that interests me; I am not moralizing. I like to present a moral dilemma to people, and then defer to their intelligence. I believe that art must shake the cage. I hope the film sparks discussion. »
May Catherine-Anne Toupin rest assured: without a doubt, Lucy Grizzly Sophie will make people talk.
The Rendez-vous Québec cinéma will be held from February 21 to March 2. The film Lucy Grizzly Sophie hits theaters on February 23.