One of the first things that surprise in Warsis that this first feature film by Nicolas Roy (Leo, Pardino d’Argento in Locarno in 2004) is based on a script that is not his own. So it’s up to Cynthia Tremblay (the short film Chocking Game, Best Direction Award to Fantasia in 2010) that we owe this story of a young soldier attracted to her hierarchical superior.
“When I received the script, remembers the director, Cynthia and producer Nicolas Comeau told me that they had the impression that it would“ fit ”with what I had done before. I agreed with them. “
With its scanty dialogues, its sober staging and its open ending, Wars bears the signature of the one whose fourth short film, It’s nothing, had been selected in the official competition in Cannes in 2011.
“Let’s say the scenario was more explicit at the start; I even completely changed the end with the agreement of Cynthia. She had started working on it 10 years ago; she sent it to me, then we played ping-pong over the filings at SODEC and Telefilm Canada. “
Even if he is used to short films, Nicolas Roy felt at ease at the helm of a feature film. Especially since the limited budget and the rapid pace of filming reminded him of the working conditions of a short film.
“I felt like there was no waiting, so I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. I was in no rush to go long, but I was ready. There is still in Warsa breath, an idea, it’s a bit like a short film. I had the impression reading the script that he was saying more than he wanted to say. During the first cut, which was two and a quarter hours, I realized that the duration was impossible. “
Seasoned editor to whom we owe the editing of several Denis Côté films (Social hygiene), the filmmaker therefore did not hesitate to cut through what seemed superfluous to him.
“Even if it may seem slow, for me, there is no length, it is ‘nabbed’ to death. Wars lasts one hour and 25 minutes; I wanted to not waste the viewer’s time. 25% of the film is always collected in the trash. The problem is that when you shoot, you don’t know which scenes will be cut. When I was cutting scenes, I wondered why I had shot them; there was no repetition in the text, but above all in the expression of the characters, of the game, in the energy of the actors. “
Toxic tandem
Camped in a military base, Wars, which deals with power games and the balance of power, does not offer a flattering image of the armed forces. As soon as she entered the army, the young Emma Duval (Éléonore Loiselle, Best Actress in Karlovy Vary) was intimidated by Sergeant Richard (David La Haye). Soon the cat and mouse game takes an unexpected turn.
“What interested me in this scenario is that it was not black and white. While this is a topic that might look popular lately, the characters are not doing what is expected of them. These are people who follow impulses, who take actions that are not thought out. “
If they have few lines to put in their mouths, Éléonore Loiselle and David La Haye are totally inhabited by their character. At times, Nicolas Roy would simply ask them to do nothing.
“The game is not driven by dialogue, so the actors could feel deprived of not being able to cast lines. I told them to be, to feel things. For the character of David, I told him that he was always threatening to fall, that he was a man who had seen too much and who wanted to teach these young people not to go and die as he had seen too many people. to do. But that I didn’t want scenes like Full Metal Jacket. “
As for the character of Emma, who was in her thirties in the original screenplay, the director wanted her to be barely 20 years old. He also bet on the androgynous look of the actress on the screen.
“In Karlovy Vary, there are people who believed that Éléonore was a boy before she spoke. I found it really interesting. Emma is surely going to the army to follow in her father’s footsteps, that’s all she knows, and Richard knew her father. There is therefore something perverse which was not in the scenario which was made in the choice of the actors. That she could be his daughter added a layer to their relationship. It’s more twisted that the two of them are attracted to each other, but without thick buttering. “
If the Oedipal dimension did not appear in the scenario, the criticism of the army’s silence on cases of harassment of all kinds did exist there.
“It’s changing in the military – in the movie, we don’t say it’s the Canadian army. There really is a culture of silence; we sort out our stuff internally. Relationships are prohibited in the military, especially between people who are not of the same rank. We forbid consensual relations and we keep silent relationships that are not … Of course, when you want to shoot with the armed forces with a scenario like that, the doors close quite easily. We couldn’t shoot on a real basis. “
It is therefore on a former base and a former Jesuit college in Saint-Jérôme as well as in the military district of Saint-Hubert that Wars could be shot. Despite the pitfalls, Nicolas Roy is satisfied with his first feature film.
“I was able to do what I had in mind, but there are several things I would do differently. But it sure wouldn’t be a flamboyant thing. I can’t wait to shoot my own script. When I’m not editing I’m working on the first version which I should submit next year. I’m happy, because it doesn’t sound like a commissioned movie. I really appropriated myself Wars. “