Billie’s story, her sunburn, her first love at first sight and her famous first time, is a little (a lot) hers. A few days before the arrival on the big screen of slush heartauthor and screenwriter Sarah-Maude Beauchesne agreed to come back with us to the scene of the crime.
Way of speaking, we get along. Let’s be clear, there is not the shadow of a crime in this story, except, of course, if we consider the consumption of a certain blue drink too sweet as a form of crime! That said, it would be missing out on a very felt story, which breathes full nose adolescence, the quest for love and, ultimately, the quest for oneself. Blue raspberry slush included, we will have understood.
Trailer of slush heart
Son paradis en Estrie
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne a grandi dans le coin de Bromont. Elle vient en prime (coïncidence ?) de s’y réinstaller pour de bon, dans une coquette maison à Knowlton. Si plusieurs scènes du film, inspiré de son roman et réalisé par Mariloup Wolfe, en salle le 16 juin, ont été tournées à Saint-Sauveur, c’est ici, en Estrie, que l’autrice nous a donné rendez-vous, un petit matin ensoleillé de mai, pour revenir sur sa jeunesse à elle. Ses 16 ans. Ses grands questionnements.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne se souvient de ses 16 ans.
J’ai tellement de souvenirs ici !
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, autrice et scénariste, à propos de Bromont
Du parc aquatique de Bromont au chemin Saxby, qu’elle arpentait matin et soir, adolescente, pour se rendre à son boulot de sauveteuse, l’autrice de Lèche-vitrines et Maxime (la suite de Cœur de slush, écrit dans sa vingtaine, dont on nous promet aussi une adaptation prochainement), ne cache pas ici sa « nostalgie ».
« Je me rends compte que j’étais vraiment chanceuse de vivre tout ça », dit-elle en se promenant au pied des glissades, où elle a travaillé quatre étés de temps. « J’ai eu une adolescence douillette, créative, pleine de romance ! J’avais beaucoup d’amis, et il faisait tout le temps beau ! », éclate-t-elle de rire, taches de rousseur à l’appui, partagées, faut-il le signaler, par la jeune Liliane Skelly, qui incarne sa Billie dans le film, avec qui la ressemblance est frappante. « J’avais les meilleurs parents, plein d’amour, et la meilleure job au monde ! » Avis aux jeunes intéressés qui se cherchent un emploi d’été…
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE
« J’avais la meilleure job au monde ! », dit en riant l’autrice Sarah-Maude Beauchesne.
Certes, tout n’est pas non plus gai dans Cœur de slush. Il y a aussi beaucoup de montagnes russes. Il y a des larmes et des vraies de vraies peines. Mais aussi plein de fous rires. « Oui, j’avais toutes les insécurités du monde, concède l’autrice de 33 ans, mais comme tout le monde. Et dans un contexte sain et joyeux ! »
Joie et vérité
Cette joie, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne a voulu la transposer à l’écran. « Oui, c’est un film joyeux, c’était important pour moi. La joie était très présente à cette époque, tout comme quand j’écrivais, ainsi que sur le plateau ! […] I wanted to make a realistic teenage film, but also full of hope, color and poetry. […] Yes, Billie asks herself a thousand questions […]. It’s a thankless time, but it’s also where you learn to love yourself. »
And that’s well said: because yes, there is joy, a cozy decor, but also a lot of truth in this story. Beyond the apparent lightness, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne has always had this concern for “authenticity”. A concern that is undoubtedly not unrelated to the success of his novel, published by Hurtubise in 2014 and sold no less than 30,000 copies (including a deluxe edition, with unpublished excerpts from the script and photos from the filming of the film, is in bookstores recently).
“When I was in my early adulthood, there was no work that spoke to desire and sexuality in an authentic way. Either it was trash, or it was blue flower,” she recalls. Never realistic, what.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
In a field along Saxby Road, not far from where Sarah-Maude Beauchesne celebrated her after-prom
Why is no one talking about pain, discomfort or consent?
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, author and screenwriter
But she, she dared. Without filter. Because it’s a fact: Sarah-Maude Beauchesne was “disappointed” with her famous and long-awaited “first time”, and she asked herself the question: “But why doesn’t anyone talk about it like that? […] Why doesn’t anyone talk about the very blurred line between desire and love? I was just told: put on a condom. But we miss so many nuances! So me, when I was young and I was writing, I wanted to say exactly what I experienced to be sure that it was true. »
If the story (sent at the time to eight publishers before being finally accepted!) was adapted for the purposes of the film, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne still gave herself the “mission” of always reaching young people. Even more than 10 years later, she points out, the themes remain exactly the same. Basically, “stop hating yourself, the importance of friends, and fun.” Above all: the fragile art of existing in the gaze of the other “when sometimes it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes it’s exhilarating”.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Back to basics for Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, in front of her brand new house in Knowlton, which strangely resembles the one in the film
And Sarah-Maude Beauchesne did not hesitate in passing to insist even more heavily on certain points, which are particularly important in her eyes and which are still talked about too little: the social construction of virginity, feminism and, of course, the consent. Between two, three sips of you know what.
In theaters June 16.