French Lesson

Lansana Kourouma as Fanfan and Uly Darly as Gégé in the film Le goût des jeunes filles (On the Verge of a Fever). Courtesy Christal Films.

At the moment, John L’Ecuyer is reversing one of the biggest trends in Quebec cinema. Where French-language directors like Lea Pool, Denys Arcand, Yves Simoneau and Robert Lepage have been trying their hand at the English language, L’Ecuyer, an anglophone, is moving in the opposite direction. His newest picture is an adaptation of Le goût des jeunes filles (loosely translated as “The Taste of Young Women”), the celebrated 1994 novel by Quebec writer Dany Laferriere – and it's in French.

The book (published in English as Dining With the Dictator) was autobiographical, based on Laferriere’s childhood experiences growing up in a turbulent Haiti. Set in 1970-71, it’s a coming-of-age tale told from the perspective of a boy who sees chaos erupt on the streets of Port-au-Prince after the death of President François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

The film’s English title is On the Verge of a Fever, and it follows 15-year-old Fanfan (Lansana Kourouma), a sexually curious lad eager to explore the possibilities of his teen years. Meanwhile, his mother (Mireille Metellus) is haunted by the memory of Fanfan’s father, who was brutally murdered for his subversive political views. Consequently, Fanfan often feels suffocated by his overprotective mère.

For L’Ecuyer, shooting in French presented a challenge. Although he was surrounded by the language while growing up in Montreal, it isn’t his mother tongue. “When I speak in French in a relaxed setting with a glass of wine, I'm fine,” he says. “But get me into a situation with a lot of stress and it’s not easy. Fourteen people are talking to you on a set, in various different dialects, and it’s like, ‘Wait! Stop! One at a time!’ It wasn’t a hindrance, I just needed a bit more time to absorb what people were saying.”

L’Ecuyer says the characters and atmosphere of Le goût des jeunes filles really spoke to him. Laferriere, meanwhile, had seen the director’s earlier work – Curtis's Charm (1995) and Saint Jude (2000) – and was eager to have L’Ecuyer translate the book for the big screen. “I hadn't really thought of working in French before, but translating the entire screenplay to English would have been wrong,” says L'Ecuyer. “The decision to shoot in French was ultimately a very natural and obvious one.”

Laughter in turbulent Haiti. Courtesy Christal Films.

Laferriere’s story is artfully told, pleasingly episodic and gorgeously shot, revealing the colours and sensations of the period. Shot in Guadeloupe, the film was done for a mere $1.5 million.

Filming in 35-degree heat on such a meagre budget was no picnic. “We shot with broken equipment,” says L’Ecuyer. “Everyone just went with the anarchy of the shoot. So many times it could have fallen apart. We had a generator that didn’t always hold up. It was a miracle film, really.

“I had to simply accept the hardships on the shoot. In a sense, I grew to really appreciate it, because it reminded me of the experience of making Curtis’s Charm. My inexperience there made everything more panicky and full of nervous energy. In this instance, because of the conditions, it makes the creativity go further. I got a similar kind of freaked-out feeling; you’re finding solutions to problems you can’t solve with money because you don’t have any. It helped to have such an amazing crew. It was very exciting.”

And working with author Laferriere? “He's phenomenal,” says L’Ecuyer. “A very brilliant man.” Laferriere penned the screenplay and also served as a consultant for the film, spending several days on the set.

L’Ecuyer has kept busy in the last two years. In addition to On the Verge of a Fever, he’s also delved into controversial social issues with two made-for-TV biopics. The first, Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story, was an account of the small-town Ontario teenager who fought for the right to bring his boyfriend as his date to his high-school prom. Then came Choice: The Henry Morgentaler Story, a movie-of-the-week about Canada’s famous abortion crusader.

L’Ecuyer’s decision to shoot a film in French prompts one to think about the two solitudes of Canadian film. English Canada seems mired in a particularly bad phase at the moment, while Francophone film is on a momentous roll. Doubters should look no further than the past two years’ worth of Genie Award winners: Quebec has swept (with films like Mémoires affectives / Looking For Alexander and Les invasions barbares / The Barbarian Invasions), while English Canada could only look on with envy.

Director John L'Ecuyer. Courtesy Christal Films.

L’Ecuyer feels too much energy on the English-Canada side has been wasted on adopting Hollywood models; he has advice for anglophone filmmakers, as well as Telefilm, the national funding body.

“Let’s reinforce what’s successful in Canada,” he says. “Between ’93 and ’96, it seemed like there was a strong wave of intriguing films coming out of English Canada. [Film and television company] Alliance Atlantis has bought up all these small companies now and shut them down. We need to do a review of the directors who are working and the producers who are getting money. I think we need to do some IQ testing.

“I became a director because I had something to say, or felt I had something to say. I didn’t do this to have power or to look cool. The vast majority of the people I meet in the business, it seems they’ve entered it for the wrong reason. I don’t know what it’s for, but it’s not because they’re desperate to tell the story,” he says. “For me, the story is always crucial.”

Le goût des jeunes filles (On the Verge of a Fever) is now playing in Toronto.

Matthew Hays is a Montreal writer.