Our Sisters-in-Law, by René Richard Cyr | In praise of housewives

By bringing to the screen Our sisters-in-lawbased on the musical theatre inspired by the legendary play by Michel Tremblay, René Richard Cyr wanted to pay tribute to the combativeness of working-class housewives. The Press met the director, the producer Denise Robert and the actress who plays Germaine Lauzon, Geneviève Schmidt.

A fan of musicals, producer Denise Robert had been dreaming for ten years of bringing the musical version of Sisters-in-law by Michel Tremblay, set to music by Daniel Bélanger in a production by René Richard Cyr in 2010.

“It was really Denise Filiatrault who passed on to me the love of the characters and the universe of Michel Tremblay. She was an exceptional teacher for me,” says the one who produced It’s your turn Laura Cadieux (1998) and Laura Cadieux… the sequel (1999), based on the novel by Tremblay.

In 2018, she obtained the rights for the film adaptation of Sisters-in-lawAll that remained was to find the person who would take on the challenge of bringing back to life these characters who have been part of the collective imagination of Quebecers since the play was created in 1968.

The only person I thought of was René Richard Cyr, because he knows these characters by heart. Since he has this ability to direct actors, which is essential in cinema, I told myself that the rest was to surround him with a team and support him in terms of all the technique, the cinematographic language. And he is a little top of the class.

Denise Robert, producer

“I found the experience very enjoyable and I would be happy to repeat it, but I would say that it requires an inner, visceral need. I can’t say that I’m running after the next film. I had already been offered films before, but when I was asked to make THE sisters-in-law “In film, I couldn’t say no, even if I was afraid,” confided René Richard Cyr, met after the press screening of Our sisters-in-law.

Although the film includes songs, the director is careful not to claim that he has written a musical comedy. His reinterpretation of the Sisters-in-law is indeed a dramatic comedy.

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“In some American films, it seems like everything stops and here, it’s like a music video. What was very important was that the singing be part of the drama and move the story forward. It had to be organic,” says Denise Robert.

“This is not a work that is a pretext for songs,” explains the director. “In musicals, the songs make us hover above the story, whereas here, the songs take us more to the heart of their revolt, their secrets.”

These are not songs to lighten everything up, but to reveal things. The fact that there are songs gives script permissions, but especially aesthetic ones where we can take off, levitate a little bit.

René Richard Cyr, director

“René Richard used to say it again: it’s not a musical, it’s the characters who sing. So you can be fake, not have a beautiful voice, but you always have to be truthful,” reveals Geneviève Schmidt, who plays Germaine Lauzon, the big winner of a million bonus stamps.

Queen of the hearth

As a young girl, Geneviève Schmidt dreamed of playing Tremblay and even of playing alongside the late Luce Guilbeault, one of the favorite actresses of playwright and director André Brassard. In 2009, shortly after graduating from the National Theatre School, she played in The effect of gamma rays on old bachelorsby Paul Zindel, in a translation by Michel Tremblay and a production by René Richard Cyr. The following year, she played Lucienne in Thérèse and Pierrette at the Saints-Anges schoolbased on the novel by Tremblay, directed by Serge Denoncourt.

“I saw the rigor of playing Tremblay, which I find very difficult to play,” reveals the actress.

I think that by playing Tremblay, many actresses “mattify” themselves, and God knows that’s not it. My challenge was therefore to make it as real as possible.

Geneviève Schmidt, actress who plays Germaine Lauzon

“Watching the film, I was proud of myself, proud to carry these words without them being heavy to carry. These are wonderful words that touch people and bring them together, and make them think of their aunts.”

It was to get closer to these women that René Richard Cyr reworked the original screenplay, sacrificed scenes and numbers, and asked Daniel Bélanger to rework certain songs.

“I wanted to know these women, to know their misery, which does not excuse the fact that they steal stamps, to invent a past for them. Without denigrating the initial work, I had the impression of taking silverware and giving it another shine. The screenwriter had a lot of fun taking these characters and inventing husbands, children, other situations for them,” he confirms.

“René Richard’s intelligence was to add these two scenes with my husband Henri, who is played by Steve Laplante, for whom I had a professional crush. These are simple scenes, but they can be difficult to play. For René Richard, Germaine is a happy woman and he wanted us to see that her husband is a good man, a good man. It was important to show that they still love and desire each other,” reveals Geneviève Schmidt.

Initially, René Richard Cyr thought of setting the action in shades of brown and gray. A mad lover of Jacques Demy’s musicals, he preferred a more lively palette.

“André Brassard is my mentor. At first, I was afraid that I was sugar-coating a misery by making it flamboyant and colorful. I told myself that now, this misery, you really have to be blind not to see it. In Our sisters-in-lawand no The sisters-in-lawit is their strength, their vitality, their beauty that I want to salute because I deeply believe that if we had not had our mothers, my God, we would be so thick!” concludes the director.

In theaters July 11