Under influence | François Létourneau: it’s cinema that he loves

Artists are also the sum of the works that have forged them. François Létourneau, actor, screenwriter and director of the series This is how I love younominated 15 times at the Gémeaux Awards Gala presented this Sunday, talks about those that have left their mark on him to our columnist Marc Cassivi, as part of our new Sous influences column.

Marc Cassivi: I am interested in the works that made you the artist you are…

François Létourneau: I have always loved cinema above all. Like you, I wrote film reviews in the student newspaper. Impact Campus at Laval University. Cinema has always been a refuge for me. When I was going through difficult times, I would go into the basement and watch my movies. As a teenager, I would copy movies that I would rent from the video store. Then, I would buy the VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and today, I have the digital version on my phone…

What kind of movies?

The first film that made me love cinema, it’s not original, but it’s Star Warswhich I saw on TVEC, the pay TV. I recorded it on an audio cassette. With my sister, we had fun playing the characters by lip-synching. I often say that my first play was Star Warsat 6 years old. A film that had a big effect on me at the cinema is Aliensby James Cameron. I left the theater so excited. It was at the Théâtre Canadien in Quebec, which had 70mm projections with incredible sound!

A science fiction fan, then?

Yes, especially at that age. As a teenager, I started to get into horror movies. Evil Dead 2I love this film! At the same time, I was going to the theater. I discovered Michel Tremblay, I read The sisters-in-law and I saw the play at the Trident. I saw The neighbors by Claude Meunier, which I read in CEGEP and which made me laugh out loud. And then the discovery of Clémence DesRochers, for me, is major. I went to see her shows with my mother, who loved her very much. I must have been 8 years old! I was probably the youngest in the room. There is poetry in her monologues, which I learned by heart. My first memories of having fun with the Quebec language are thanks to Clémence DesRochers. I have always loved her.

(A woman approaches us at the café table. She was François Létourneau’s mother’s literature student at university and insists on greeting her.)

Your mother must have introduced you to literature too, I imagine?

My mother was doing her PhD on Jean-Jacques Rousseau when I was little. She was typing on her typewriter and it fascinated me. There were a lot of books in our house, but I was never a big reader. My girlfriend laughs at me because I buy a lot of books that I don’t finish. I forget about them. I read Paul Auster and John Irving as a teenager, at my mother’s suggestion. The World According to Garpwhich was quite avant-garde, with a transsexual character.

I saw the film as a teenager. Was it cinema that was your gateway to culture?

There was really a turning point that happened in CEGEP, in a philosophy class, when I saw Zelig by Woody Allen. This movie is a masterpiece! Obviously, it’s tricky to talk about Woody Allen. But as I tell my son, who is 17: there is so little beauty in the world that when artists make works that are beautiful, we don’t throw them away. No matter what we think of them. I’m talking aboutHannah and her sisters to younger people who tell me they will never watch this film. I find that sad. I spent a summer discovering Woody Allen, and at the same time, I discovered Seinfeld…

In my opinion, Seinfeldit’s a cult work!

We have the same tastes. When I did my baccalaureate in political science, I was very studious. I was in my head a lot. During my breaks, I listened to Seinfeldwhich I had recorded. I think I learned to become a screenwriter by listening to Seinfeld. I made it recently. It’s a straight comedy, but there are some really well-crafted episodes.

The language is quite formal for an American sitcom. It’s funny because the characters you write for yourself, always with this cowardly but endearing side, remind me of George…

All the characters of Seinfeld are a bit unpleasant, but ultimately, we recognize ourselves in them. It’s really the show that influenced me the most. I don’t watch a lot of TV series. I prefer theater and movies. When I entered the Conservatory to become an actor, there was a series of films that really left a mark on me, and I’m sure you like them too: Fargo by the Coen brothers, Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson, The Ice Storm by Ang Lee. I don’t know if you remember Happiness by Todd Solondz?

This is one of my favorite movies!

Oh yeah? It’s very hard to find. There are a lot of young people who don’t know about it. It’s unthinkable to make a film like that now.

I found it so subversive in the way it subverted the codes of the family film. This cynical and offbeat black humor…

This mixture of drama and humor, which I like when I write. With Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom I was discovering as an actor. Another film that I saw in the same period and which would go down less well today is Election by Alexander Payne.

A teacher who has a relationship with his high school student…

You have to see movies in context. Otherwise, it’s completely unfair. In The Invinciblesthere are things that I probably wouldn’t rewrite in the same way today.

It is important to remember that these are fictional characters.

When I was young, I really liked action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Commando, Rambo… When I realized it was violent, part of me started to feel guilty. My father, who died, didn’t talk much and I don’t know if he knew how much it affected me, but he told me: “François, it’s a film; you don’t have to feel guilty!” I’ve never forgotten it. I talk about it with emotion… Fiction is a place of exploration where you can express ugly or dangerous things. A work doesn’t have to be benevolent. Otherwise, there would be no Tarantino films!

We agree…

I also read a lot of plays at the Conservatoire and when I left, I founded a theatre company. We did plays by David Mamet, whom I still like a lot, even if he took a bit of a strange tangent… He’s very right-wing. I also liked Harold Pinter. There’s a weirdness and a strangeness that I like, like in David Lynch’s cinema. Blue Velvet !

Frank Booth and his mask!

I was traumatized by this film. By Psycho also. When I was young – this is also thanks to my mother – I really liked Alfred Hitchcock. Before directing the third season of This is how I love youI wanted to rewatch all the Hitchcock films that I had loved when I was 10-12 years old, with a director’s eye: Vertigo, Window on the courtyard. These are films that I love.

Grace Kelly is great in Window on the courtyard.

I realize that I am very American in my influences. In Quebec, I freaked out when I saw The Decline of the American Empirevery young, on a cassette that my parents had rented. There is also Good riddance which is one of my favorite Quebec films. It’s so touching. The actors are so good.

The poetry of Ducharme’s dialogues is irresistible. It’s one of my favorite films too.

I recently heard you on the radio talking about one of my favorite movies: Tootsie. I wish I could be in the studio with you! Tootsie is considered a perfect script in terms of structure. It’s a film of great humanity, which is also very funny. I watch it every year. Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack were so concerned with truth that on the set, people didn’t find it funny! When I’m filming, I always think about that: we like it when the crew laughs, but it’s not always a good sign. Sometimes, on the show, it’s rotten!

So you do TV series, but you don’t watch them that much?

It’s weird, because I write TV, but I find it too long, a series! I’ve never seen Six Feet Under neither The Sopranos. Seeing all this from the beginning, it discourages me! And then TV ages less well than cinema, in general…

The third season of This is how I love you is presented on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on ICI Télé.