Philippe Lupien and Marie-Hélène Viens like to use the tools, mechanisms, codes and technical and imaginary possibilities of cinema to offer offbeat projects, tinged with mystery, allegories of the modern world that push the classic boundaries of storytelling .
Their three short films, on which they worked in tandem on the screenplay and direction, bear witness to this. The first, Bernard the Great (2013), told the story of a child who decides to build himself an anti-growing-up suit so that he will never reach adulthood. The second, Amen (2016), featured an 11-year-old messenger of God sent to Earth to heal humans of their sins and prepare them for the great return of the Holy Trinity.
Winner of several awards, selected in several festivals, these short films have enjoyed great success. However, these accolades will not have made the path to the production of the first feature film any easier for the two filmmakers.
You are not alonewhich will land on Quebec screens next week, took more than ten years to see the light of day. Ten years of writing, of doubts, of starting over, and above all of more or less successful fundraising efforts. “Our proposal was quite daring, especially for a first film,” explains Marie-Hélène Viens. We really believed in this hybrid – a mix of science fiction and romance –, in the use of genre codes, in the freedom of our approach. But it’s still very difficult to get out of the box. »
Pier-Luc Funk, who plays the main role, also followed the evolution of the process for four years. “They fought because they believed in their project. It is the result of incredible determination, but above all of great passion. It’s incredible to celebrate its achievement today. »
Allegory of solitude
In You are not alonethe actor plays Léo, a young man who isolates himself following a painful breakup. A night pizza delivery man, he accidentally meets John (François Papineau), a mysterious taxi driver who seems to be spying on him and following him, as if thirsty by his solitude. At the same time, Léo falls in love with Rita (Marianne Fortier), a sensitive young woman who sees and hears him like no one before.
This budding romance will upset the plans of John – whose humanity is quickly called into doubt -, who will try everything in his power to ensure that his victim does not allow himself to be trapped by the flames of love.
It was first of all the fascination with people saying they had witnessed or been victims of extraterrestrial abductions that put Philippe Lupien and Marie-Hélène Viens on the trail of their story. “There was a really interesting parallel to be made between the loneliness of humanity in the universe, our desire to connect with other entities, to know that there are others like us, and the loneliness individuality of each person,” says the first.
“As humans, we need to belong, to understand our place in the universe in order to find a purpose,” emphasizes Marie-Hélène Viens. When we started writing the film, we were just out of university and we were in this pivotal time where everyone loses sight of each other, starts to work, where we no longer really know what we should do, it’s What is the point of all this? I remember feeling like I was disappearing from my own life. Then, slowly, we come into contact with other people, we find people who see us for real, who help us discover things. That’s what we wanted to talk about. »
A hybrid film
As they worked on these themes, the idea of bringing together the truth of romance and the supernatural of science fiction emerged organically. “Léo’s journey is very introspective. We wanted to use the fantastical aspect to project his emotions and what he is going through in a metaphor, an allegory that would make everything more visual. The character of John therefore becomes an alter ego of Léo, his dark side,” indicates Philippe Lupien. “We really wanted to use cinema, the medium and its artifices, to talk about real emotions and a key passage in life in which everyone can recognize themselves,” adds the co-director.
The directors therefore multiply the nods to the classics, taking inspiration from the romantic strangeness of the films Punch-Drunk Love (2002) by Paul Thomas Anderson and The sun rises late (1977) by André Brassard as look nostalgic for Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), by Steven Spielberg. References to Signs (2002) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) also testify to Marie-Hélène Viens’ love for popular culture, a love also reflected by the omnipresence of the song Heleneby Roch Voisine, with the soundtrack.
The two filmmakers do not hesitate to twist the codes of the two genres, accentuating the contrasts between the realism of the romance film and the mysterious and anxiety-provoking side of science fiction in scenes where the intense traveling shots and pieces disturbing music.
“We really relied on the acting of the actors, anchored in truth, and on their emotions and reactions to develop the transitions between the two atmospheres. As the characters do not understand what is happening to them, it imposed a certain rhythm, a certain slowness to be respected, so that we oscillate from fear and incomprehension to the lightness of love,” underlines Philippe Lupien.
The success of this contrast is largely based on the complicity between Pier-Luc Funk and Marianne Fortier, brought together for the first time on screen. “It’s crazy, because having both started in the profession since childhood, we had always known each other without knowing each other. It clicked on the first try. It was really the fun to work together in this kind of vague zone where you are clumsy, you are afraid, you don’t want to spill everything, you take a step forward then a step back, to dive into this great vulnerability. We really let ourselves be guided by each other to evolve and take the scenes elsewhere. »
“These are two actors who have great emotional intelligence, who can make people laugh while maintaining a certain sadness in their eyes,” says Marie-Hélène Viens, who imagined the scenario with the faces of the two actors in mind. They are capable of touching us with their clumsiness, of bringing a scene back to its essentials. »
With this decade of work closing, the two partners already have their eyes firmly turned towards the future. They are already working on their next film, a musical comedy in which a young girl looking for her father will be carried in her quest by the biggest musical hits of the 1990s and 2000s. That promises!
The movie You are not alone hits theaters October 18.