The Time Harvester | “A fantastic film that looks like us”

After Babine and Esimésac, The Time Harvester is the third adaptation of a tale by Fred Pellerin for the cinema. In an interview, the director Francis Leclerc affirms that despite the cinematographic genre, the fantastic, the film remains anchored in the Quebec identity. Meeting with the filmmaker and members of the cast.

The Time Harvester is a story that has its source in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton and is told through the eyes of a kid named Fred. It’s a story shot in Saint-Armand and in the unique Frelighsburg cemetery. A story overflowing with apples like there are in this region. And a little story with a few keys, well hidden, referring us to the immense one of Quebec.

“ The Time Harvester is a fantastic film that looks like us and that we do not often have the opportunity to make, launches the filmmaker Francis Leclerc in an interview. She resembles us in that the character of Death speaks to us in Quebecois. When she told us, for example, to go to Shawinigan. This death is not international; she comes from Saint-Élie-de-Caxton. ”

Le « fantastique » dont parle le cinéaste (Une jeune fille à la fenêtre, Un été sans point ni coup sûr) est évidemment ce genre qu’il a pu explorer dans le passé avec la télésérie Les rescapés, mais qui, au cinéma québécois, est davantage l’exception que la règle. C’est là que résidait pour lui le plus grand défi, du moins sur le plan technique.

Leclerc a décidé de relever ce défi de façon frontale, évitant les effets numériques (CGI), lorsqu’il le pouvait, au profit de réels décors et objets.

« Je voulais m’en aller dans quelque chose de plus organique et mécanique, dit-il. Par exemple, pour l’histoire, on a utilisé un vrai pommier. Et lorsque le personnage de Belle Lurette (Marie-Ève Beauregard) disparaît dans une malle, c’est du décor. C’est construit ! Même chose avec le personnage de la Mort et son costume qui prend cinq heures à installer. Comme approche, c’est très Labyrinthe de Pan [Guillermo del Toro], a film that I really like. ”

The death

The death. Let’s talk about it. Since she is everywhere in the film. In fact, she is the heart of it. In the particularly abundant world and the very colorful characters of The Time Harvester, death remains the pivot, the crossroads, the meeting point.

Here is how it manifests. In 1988, in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, an 11-year-old boy named Fred (Oscar Desgagnés) feared for the life of his grandmother (Michèle Deslauriers). To reassure him, the latter, an outstanding storyteller, takes him back 60 years in the same village with very colorful, sympathetic and a little cracked characters who unite to thwart Death. Because from death are born legends.

And this is where the viewer is taken back in time. More precisely in 1927, to meet the villagers: Bernadette (Jade Charbonneau), the alcoholic barber Méo (Marc Messier), the blacksmith and widower dad Riopel (Guillaume Cyr), the Toussaint couple (Émile Proulx-Cloutier) and Jeannette (Sonia Cordeau) who run the general store, the priest Neuf qui zozote (Pier-Luc Funk) and Mr.^me Gélinas (Geneviève Schmidt) whose 472 children all have their foreheads crossed out with a single eyebrow.

On the fringes of this community lives, in a large house that no one has visited, the Stroop (Céline Bonnier), a strange modern witch who perhaps possesses the keys to send this time-puller that is death into the shadows.

For Francis Leclerc, the Stroop embodies a form of modernity and independence with its pants, its rifle swung over its shoulder and its turquoise car from 1938. “An assumed anachronism,” says the filmmaker. It is as if we were told that she had access to the future. ”

Women in the front

“At the base, the story is carried by a trio of strong women, if we include Death,” said Francis Leclerc, who is in his second collaboration with screenwriter Fred Pellerin after Barefoot in the dawn, where Leclerc paid homage to the work of his father, Félix. The two women wise from the village are the Stroop and Bernadette, who is like the Hermione of the group. ”

Otherwise, the other characters are “silly and sympathetic,” says Francis Leclerc. “It’s okay to say it like that. “

Interpreter of Toussaint, the owner of the general store who is more attracted by success in business than by intimacy with his wife and family life, Émile Proulx-Cloutier subscribes to this idea.

“For childish reasons, Toussaint makes a decision that puts people in danger,” he said. He makes silly decisions and that’s what makes him endearing to me. The characters of Fred are sometimes larger, but also smaller, than life. ”

Apple

The spectator will also notice that the symbol of the apple occupies an important place in the film. There is little Fred’s red apple. There are the black apples of the tree, struck by lightning, located in the heart of the village. To bite into one of them is to expose yourself to all the dangers. Are we coming back to original sin?

Francis Leclerc has also experienced as much pleasure in finding a visual representation of Death (which we will not mention the name of the interpreter who is in the credits) with his big black costume. “Death was the very foundation of history,” says Francis Leclerc. She is still physically present. We had to represent it. ”

In short, you should never take your eyes off Death. In Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, like everywhere else, this is wise advice.

In theaters on Friday, November 19

The Time Harvester seen by the cast

The interpreters of Francis Leclerc’s film present their respective characters

Céline Bonnier (The Stroop)

“My character’s look started with the costumes. We wanted to make La Stroop a kind of modern witch. We were often afraid of these women called witches and many ended up burned. However, they were more independent women, with a different way of thinking, of organizing themselves. Here, as we are in a tale, anything can be done. The tale leads you to have an interior world, an imaginary world of your own. It’s like opening a window to oxygenate that part of our brain. ”

Jade Charbonneau (Bernadette)

“My interpretation of the story is that with every death that occurs, a legend begins. I see in it a great poem, a kind of reconciliation with this tragic destiny that we will all have to face. My character is filled with hope, with light. I see her as a very young woman inhabited by a strength greater than herself. A woman full of temerity. And although she always goes to the forehead, she remains very gentle. She has a real affection for all the other characters. ”

Marc Messier (Meo)

“Méo is an alcoholic with great sensitivity. He is more sensitive and alcoholic than a good barber. I wouldn’t go and have my hair cut by him! The film was shot in the village of Saint-Armand, where my family comes from. Best of all, my dad was born there and he was… barber! Like four or five of his brothers. My father was on the 20^e child of the family! So when I was offered the role, I felt a call. It spoke to me a lot! ”

Sonia Cordeau and Émile Proulx-Cloutier (Jeannette and Toussaint Brodeur)

Sonia Cordeau and Émile Proulx-Cloutier form the couple of Jeannette and Toussaint Brodeur. “Toussaint has a vision in silos, in tunnels, on the world,” explains Émile. “But they make a good team. They complete each other. They love each other, ”adds Sonia Cordeau.

According to Émile, “Fred [Pellerin] is tender with his characters, but he does not spare them ”. “Mine is frankly cellar! That’s what I like about it. All the characters have the qualities of their faults. “

“And even if we are in a tale, we do not lecture, says Sonia Cordeau. We are quite simply in a story. “