Yvon Barrette has played dozens of film roles in his life, but there is only one that allows him to be welcomed as a legend wherever he goes, almost 50 years later: Slap Shot.
“Those who participated in this film, we are all surprised that it lasted,” he begins by admitting. It has become a cult film. I wasn’t expecting that at all…”
When answering our call, Barrette – Denis Lemieux, for short – drives towards Gatineau, in the company of the no less famous Hanson brothers, where they are honored this Thursday by the world of junior hockey, before being also honored Friday evening by the Cataractes in Shawinigan.
They do that, sometimes, during the season: appearances, photo ops, handshakes left and right. “We meet fans, we sign photos… it’s wonderful,” adds Barrette with a smile in his voice.
-
PHOTO ETIENNE RANGER, THE LAW
Yvon Barrette and Jeff Carlson sign autographs during an event in Gatineau on Thursday evening.
-
PHOTO ETIENNE RANGER, THE LAW
Dave Hanson and Jeff Carlson sign autographs, to the delight of fans.
-
PHOTO ETIENNE RANGER, THE LAW
Dave Hanson (front) signing a Chiefs jersey, his hands well-ribboned!
-
PHOTO ETIENNE RANGER, THE LAW
David Hanson, Yvon Barrette and Jeff Carlson, Thursday evening in Gatineau
1/4
Such enthusiasm is still possible because no one has forgotten Slap Shota hockey classic, but also a cinema classic, launched in 1977. The Denis Lemieux played by Yvon Barrette is a slightly crazy goalie who strings together tasty lines, which almost all of Quebec is capable of reciting by heart Today.
“Much later,” he adds, “in 2001 I toured with Falardeau [le film 15 février 1839], and I received an email from someone in Los Angeles, who had come across a photo of me as Osias Primeau, the patriot. The guy asked me, “Was that you, the goalie in Slap Shot ?” He mailed me pucks for me to sign. »
I still get some [des demandes d’autographes]. It happens from everywhere, from Sweden, from California, from Germany… I went there and I learned to say: “Whose Chiefs are they?” in German !
Yvon Barrette
Denis Lemieux will not always have received only love, by mail or in person. Yvon Barrette still remembers that evening of the big premiere in 1977 at the cinema on Place Alexis Nihon. “The first reaction I got was from an Irishman who had attended a performance just before. He came out of the room, walked straight towards me and said to me in English: “You are a disgrace to hockey!” »
Because at the time of its release, Slap Shot was so close to reality – previously, general brawls were a habit in our national sport – that some spectators believed it to be a true story.
PHOTO ETIENNE RANGER, THE LAW
Yvon Barrette with the actors who played two of the Hanson brothers, Thursday evening, on the ice at the Slush Puppie Center in Gatineau
Which still makes Yvon Barrette laugh today.
“It’s a documentary. It was violent in the North American Hockey League in those years, and the film was made to parody that violence. A hockey film that ends with a striptease can’t be serious, well… The rest of us, on set, laughed for 13 weeks. No one was hurt…
In my head, with the reaction I had the night of the premiere in Montreal, I was certain that this film was not going to have a very long career. I shot with Gilles Carle, with Jean-Claude Lord… when the film is finished, it’s finished. But the rest of us, it seems like it’s just getting started!
Yvon Barrette
If Slap Shot stands the test of time like this, thanks in part to this French version dubbed in Quebec. The French we find there is a lot closer to Pierre Bouchard than to Pierre Bayle… “When the film was released in French in Quebec, it was an immediate success,” recalls Barrette. It was the first time that an American film was translated in Quebec. But when it came out, all the professional hockey players were offended by the language of Paul Newman’s character! It took quite a while before the lines from the film appeared on the giant screen during the Canadian’s matches…”
For all these reasons, Yvon Barrette can still, to this day, be received like a king in the arenas of the world, by an audience that is constantly renewing itself. “I remember one time I signed photos for three people at the same time: the grandfather, the father and the grandson… all three knew all the lines! »
This is why, almost 50 years later, Yvon Barrette does not get tired, and neither does his audience; to this day, he is still asked to recite parts of the film, perhaps for the thousandth time. He always performs with the same enthusiasm. “People talk to me more about Slap Shot than my role in Bernadette’s true nature… »
And then, exactly, what is the line that we still ask him to say, even after all these years? “The most famous, I think, is “trade me right fuckin’ now”… It’s a very practical replica! »