Warning: the title of this article may seem misleading. No chicane in my cabin was not written and directed by children. However, the place left to young actors by director Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers was so great that the film bears their mark. “We did it as a team,” says the filmmaker.
Posted yesterday at 7:00 a.m.
Even though No chicane in my cabin is her first feature film, Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers has already shot a lot. She has fifteen short films to her credit, including just me and youwhich received a Crystal Bear at the Berlinale in 2019.
This film, which features an 8-year-old girl, brought the director to the youth sections of various international festivals as well as schools. She met many bright young people there.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers, director
I realized that they really had things to say, these children. […] They had an interesting, important speech. I said to myself: “If I remake a film with children, I want to do it for them.”
Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers, director
Promise kept! No chicane in my cabin tells the story of 12-year-old Justine, who wants her parents to divorce. Exasperated to hear them bickering every day, she schemes with her friends to separate them, going so far as to organize a lawsuit during the end of the year school show.
“The idea came from Maryse Latendresse, my co-screenwriter […], says Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers. What interested us was to give children a voice on an adult issue. »
However, one element was very important to the two screenwriters: authenticity. Hence the idea of leaving great freedom to young actors. “I didn’t want it to be the adult coming in and saying, ‘Do this! Do that!” “, illustrates the one who is also an actress.
“She really allowed us to improvise, confirms Charlotte St-Martin, who lends her features to Justine. She let us make a lot of suggestions. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Charlotte St-Martin
The improvisation sessions notably led to changes in the lines.
Certain expressions “probably of his time, which we did not know”, have been modified, says for example Charlotte St-Martin.
“Sandrine really trusted us to explore our characters,” adds Simone Laperle, who landed her first life role, that of Ernestine.
“I asked them a lot of questions to find out how they saw the scenes, how they would experience a situation,” says Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers.
Results ? No chicane in my cabin is “a film where children can say to themselves: ‘It looks like my life'”, believes Simone Laperle. Which doesn’t happen often enough, according to the young actors we met.
“There is a real lack of films seen by children for children,” notes Charlie Fortier, who plays Claudia, Justine’s best friend.
“We need to have films that are not too babyish, not too mature,” adds the lead actress.
The return of Tales for all?
The couple who play the role of his parents, Isabelle Blais and Pierre-Luc Brillant, agree. At one time, there were Tales for All, recalls the actor who himself began his career in one of these films more than 30 years ago, Money box Combines & Cie. “It would be fun if it were a tradition that we recover in Quebec,” he believes.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Pierre-Luc Brillant and Isabelle Blais
A strange coincidence also links the start of the project of No chicane in my cabin Tales for all.
Maryse Latendresse and Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers made the skeleton of the film in one afternoon. “It just flowed. We were really inspired,” recalls the director. Before leaving the premises of the National Institute of Image and Sound, where they were, they noticed that an evening was being held there in tribute to… André Melançon, director of The tuque war and of Bach and Bootie. “We had chills. We said to ourselves that we had to make a kind of updated Tale for all, ”says Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers.
The youth perspective
More comic than dramatic No chicane in my cabin However, it does touch on a serious subject: divorce.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to make parents aware of the child’s point of view when it comes to talking about divorce,” believes Liam Patenaude, interpreter of Théo, Justine’s other best friend.
No question, however, for Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers and Maryse Latendresse to make a plea for or against divorce. “We didn’t want to do something moralistic,” notes the director.
“What interested us both was to make sure that we go into families and that we see that harmony can be different. Everyone can find their harmony, even if it is not necessarily in the same way. »
No chicane in my cabin hits theaters this Friday.