Posted at 7:00 a.m.
(Calixa-Lavallée) The feature film team slush heart has moved a lot in the past few weeks. After Frelighsburg, Lac-Brome and Saint-Sauveur, it is in the Montérégie countryside, in Calixa-Lavallée, that the plateau has settled.
While the technicians are busy around a small Quebec house with rural charm, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne is delighted to talk about her “favorite subject” with the journalists.
Announced in 2016, the film adaptation project of slush heart will take a few years to come to fruition. Why ? “Six years ago, I was excited and feverish that [le producteur] Christian Larouche wants to make a film with slush heartbut it seems that I hadn’t measured the extent of the work, ”replies the author, who wanted to adapt the book herself.
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PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Author Sarah-Maude Beauchesne on the set of the film Coeur de Slush by Mariloup Wolfe.
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PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Liliane Skelly plays Billie in Heart of slush.
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PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Francois Letourneau and Mariloup Wolfe
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PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Filming of the film Coeur de Slush by Mariloup Wolfe
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PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The actress Liliane Skelly and Mariloup Wolfe
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It’s been six years of writing, rewriting. […] I shunned the screenplay for a year and a half. I came back to it, I rewrote. It was a big roller coaster. It was very emotional because I said to myself “if it happens, it has to look like me”.
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, author
The final version of the screenplay, released “from [s]we brain and [s]on coeur” a little over a year ago, has been taking shape since September in front of the cameras of director Mariloup Wolfe.
“Mariloup understood my world right away. I trust him so much, ”says Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, who admits to being very protective of the project because the book tells her own adolescence almost as it is.
slush heart follows Billie, a lifeguard at a water park, during the summer of her 16th birthday. The teenager will meet Pierre, a young prodigy cyclist, with whom she will fall in love, which will cause friction with her big sister.
The theme of first love, “the poetry of Sarah-Maude Beauchesne’s writing” and the fact that the story features teenagers are the elements that prompted Mariloup Wolfe to say yes to the project.
new faces
The director ofArlette has a lot of fun directing the young actors on her set. “Some are at their first experience. It’s really trippy for me to see their eyes filled with wonder,” confides Mariloup Wolfe.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Mariloup Wolfe
The latter is really eager to introduce the public to the interpreter of Billie, Liliane Skelly, in her first major role in the cinema. “She is exceptional. […] She has a fine, refined game, all in subtlety ”, enthuses the director who, with the help of Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, selected the actress from some 700 candidates.
On this autumn day with summer temperatures, the scenes shot take place in Billie’s house. Sitting in her room, she talks with her father, played by François Létourneau.
How does Liliane Skelly, who has just celebrated her 18e birthday, is she living her experience so far? “It’s sick, answers the actress that we could see in District 31. First, it’s a bit dizzying. It’s a big movie. »
It may seem like a lot on my shoulders, but I am so well surrounded and well guided.
Liliane Skelly, who plays Billie
Liliane Skelly notably listened to the advice of Camille Felton, who plays her big sister Annette. “We were really able to create a very brotherly relationship, Lili and I. […] With my experience on the set, I was able to help her a lot, ”says the 23-year-old actress.
Attract young people
Recently, various articles have reported on the fact that young people are abandoning the Quebec cultural industry. According to the two actresses, slush heart will he succeed in seducing them?
“I think young people will really like slush heart because it will join them on many aspects. It’s very topical. […] We talk about patriarchy, feminism. There are plenty of issues addressed that we do not necessarily address in other series or children’s films, ”replies Camille Felton.
For her part, Liliane Skelly believes that the “authentic and true” aspect of this love story will appeal to teenagers. “It’s not all beautiful or all ugly,” she analyzes, adding that adults will also like the film.
François Létourneau agrees with the interpreter of Billie.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Francois Letourneau
It is above all a film about first love. The side so beautiful, but which can be so painful when it ends. Me, I’ve never forgotten my first heartache.
François Létourneau, who plays Billie’s father
The public in general deserts the cinema, notes for her part Mariloup Wolfe. Is slush heart will be successful in theaters? She can’t predict it. However, she works very hard to ensure that the feature film interests young people, in particular by staying on the lookout for what they are listening to.
The director is convinced that productions for teenagers “have an impact” in their lives. Even today, we often talk to him about his role in On your marks… Party! “These are films that remain in the imagination,” she believes.
slush heart will be released in cinemas in the summer of 2023; a sequel is already on the horizon. Sarah-Maude Beauchesne recently started working on the script for a second film, which will combine volumes 2 and 3 of her successful trilogy.