shorts
Made in Quebec: Denys Arcand on L’Âge des ténèbres
Famous Québec editor Mathieu Chantelois reports on the Quebec film scene
After making films for more than three decades, writer and director Denys Arcand says he’s doing everything the same way he did 30 years ago — with one exception.
“I’ve discovered the joy of power naps! On set, I used to be the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed. Now I really enjoy having 30 minutes to rest in my trailer.”
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Director Denys Arcand. Above: Marc Labrèche in L’Âge des ténèbres
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Arcand is at the Toronto International Film Festival just a few minutes before the North American premiere of L’Âge des ténèbres — Days of Darkness in English — a comedy despite its title.
The film is the last in Arcand’s trilogy that comments on the isolation and blandness of modern life. The series began with The Decline of the American Empire in 1985. The second film, The Barbarian Invasions,
won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film in 2004. This last chapter
hits theatres on December 7th and has already been chosen as Canada’s
2007 Oscar submission for Best Foreign-Language Film.
The movie tells the story of Jean-Marc (Quebec TV star Marc
Labrèche), a civil servant with a house in suburbia, a boring job, a
high-powered and unfaithful wife and two daughters who won’t even
remove their iPods to talk to him.
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The only good things he has are his dreams (including one in which
Diane Kruger visits him in the shower). The result is a darker and more
cynical film than the first two, “because the world that I see around
me worries me a lot,” says Arcand.
“I made this film thinking it would be my second last,” he
explains. “But, then again, I’ve said that on the set of many of my
films! For some strange reason, this time around the media picked up on
it. The so-called news of the end of my career was everywhere. The
truth is that I’m always under the impression that I’m done with
filmmaking. I’m 66. It takes me three to four years to make a film.
It’s hard to think I will still be making films at 70! But I’m here to
stay. I’m just afraid one day it will hit me and I’ll become the old
man that I really am!”
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Bianca, the silicone star of Lars and
the Real Girl
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Artifact
This month’s objet de film: Bianca
Meet Bianca. In fact, for $3,200 you can take her home. The silicone star of last month’s Lars and the Real Girl
went on sale at Premiereprops.com in mid-October, and as of press time
she had yet to sell. The movie that made Bianca famous stars Ryan
Gosling as a socially awkward guy who orders a life-sized, anatomically
correct doll off the internet and believes her to be real. His family,
and his entire town, support his delusion and treat Bianca like part of
the community.
In real life, these dolls (called RealDolls) go
for upwards of $6,500. So shouldn’t Bianca’s status as a film star
increase, rather than decrease, her value? “We want to make sure
everyone has a chance to own a piece of the movie,” says Dan Levin,
Vice President of Marketing for Premiere Props. Levin explains that his
company works in conjunction with several major and independent studios
to get their props into the hands of the public. “It’s really about
exposure for the film,” he says.
—Marni Weisz |