This text is part of the special Plaisirs booklet
Quebec serves as the backdrop for many productions from here and elsewhere. Here are a few tips to find places seen in movies and TV series during your next getaways.
Action Montreal!
To highlight various emblematic places of the metropolis seen on the big screen, the Cinemania festival, which is in full swing indoors until November 14 and online until the 21st, is offering an exhibition this year on the Place des Festivals du Quartier. shows as well as a sound tour behind the scenes of the shoots in the company of various voices of cinema, including Monia Chokri, Helen Faradji and Jean-François Pouliot. From the Old Port to the Plateau via the Olympic Stadium, 13 stations equipped with QR codes allow moviegoers to linger at places seen in films. A total of 16 episodes make up the circuit, which will be accessible beyond the festival, until July 2022. It’s your turn, Laura Cadieux by Denise Filiatrault, Hochelaga by François Girard, Brooklyn by John Crowley and A revision by Catherine Therrien are in the spotlight. During the festival, the video projection Action Montreal!, which revisits scenes from Quebec and international films shot in the metropolis, will also be visible on the facades of the Wilder building and the President-Kennedy pavilion at UQAM from 5 p.m.
Cinephiles curious to discover how Montreal is metamorphosed on the small and the big screen can also browse the website of the Film and Television Bureau to identify the places most used by Quebec and foreign production teams.
Netflix at home
In order to showcase the Canadian landscapes seen in its content, Netflix launched the Netflix home site this fall. It is possible to locate the filming locations by searching by the title of a film or a series, but also by province. Only three Quebec productions are there for the moment, including Until the decline, the first Quebec film financed and broadcast by the platform, shot in the Lanaudière and Laurentides regions. For example, we discover that the Ouareau Forest Regional Park appears in the feature film.
Film Laurentides convinced the team to use the region as a backdrop. “The action took place in an isolated place in the middle of nature,” says Marie-Josée Pilon, director. The production was looking for private property that was well hidden. With the exception of a few scenes on the public road, the majority of filming locations in the Laurentians were privately owned. »On Netflix at home, these properties are of course not on the map. Only StoneHaven Le Manoir and the Maison 1890 restaurant appear there. “These are places that were suggested to Netflix by the production,” says Mme Pilon, but no scene was shot there. The 1860 was discovered because the production crew ate there. “
However, the restaurant will soon appear in a Netflix Christmas movie, Single All the Way. “It’s been two times that Sainte-Agathe has been transformed into a small town in the United States for American productions,” emphasizes Marie-Josée Pilon.
The Laurentians on the big and small screen
If the seventh art gives moviegoers the desire to discover the places seen on the screens, the repercussions of productions on tourism are also very great during filming, underlines the director of Films Laurentides, founded in 1997. Closed during the pandemic, the Lac Carling hotel, in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, for example reopened its doors in May 2020 to accommodate members of a production. Four other productions made it their anchor over the following months. The same establishment also hosted the film crew The Hummingbird Project by Kim Nguyen, released in 2018, in addition to serving as the backdrop for some scenes of the film. The area is also one of the most popular places for filmmakers. “Someone who goes for a walk in the Harrington Valley will also surely recognize plans,” says Mr.me Pestle.
Other places that are regularly used include Oka Abbey, which also has an inn and a bistro. “Since 2009, more than thirty Quebec and foreign productions have toured there. »Actors of Three pines, a series based on Louise Penny’s detective novels which will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video, also responded to it.
The year 2021 was particularly prosperous, since around fifty shootings were made in the region. “The number of overnight stays counted amounts to nearly 8,000 [hôtels, auberges, chalets] and the year is not over, underlines Mme Pestle. We are expecting shoots in November and December. “
A filmography can be found on the Film Laurentides website, which has attracted more than 650 productions since 1997.