Cinema Canada (May 1980)

Phase II. Just as they were polishing the obituary for the Quebec film industry, it was suddenly back in business. Despite the cynicism voiced in some quarters, and with all the energy familiar the last time round, the movies are being made again. Certainly a good many names and faces are brand new, but the veterans are still to be found — though not necessarily in familiar guise. A case in point : one of the top ‘first phase’ actresses has become a ‘second phase’ director, and the result of that metamorphosis is the engaging L’homme 8 tout faire. Micheline Lanctét has garnered international recognition for her performances in Quebec films : most notably as the star of Gilles Carle’s La vraie nature de Bernadette, and in her role opposite Richard Dreyfuss in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Although she played in the recent Mourir a tue-téte, it is her work as writer/director that is generating the new excitement. Uhomme a tout faire will bow internationally at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes this year; a rather heady tribute to a first-time director under any circumstances. But Lanctét is far from blinded by the stardust. An experienced professional on both sides of the camera, she learned a good deal about that sudden “flush of success” the first time round,and remains guarded in her response to all the new acclaim. Independent, witty, and refreshingly frank, Lanctét surveys the current scene froma distinctly unique viewpoint. Her observations become particularly relevant as the second era of Quebec film moves into gear. Cinema Canada: Most people knew you primarily as an actress previous to L’-homme 8 tout faire. How did your involvement with film begin ? Micheline Lanctét : I wasa film animator for about four years, so I was familiar with film from a point of view other than 6/May 1980 HE EDITING dIOUSE EDITING ROOMS FOR RENT e Large bright fully equipped rooms. © 16 and 35 Steenbecks and Moviolas. e Pleasant location right in Yorkville. © Reasonable rates. Mixing, screening and video facilities less than a minute away. THE EDITING HOUSE 119 collard St. Toronto M5R1G4 call (416) 964-8956 and ask for Judy acting. Acting gave me set experience. But I never had any formal training in either field. Cinema Canada: Do you regret that ? Micheline Lanctédt : | don’t know. Sometimes I envy people who've gone through exhaustive training. And yet I can’t do it. I went to Beaux Arts for two months, tnthnhesnihsiciouciealistediistick has haamege I find something stale about training... <a i ai se because I was going to be an artist, and I couldn’t stand it: much too academic. The schools compress you into a certain way of doing things, which I think doesn’t apply to art. My music training was fairly exhaustive, but I still deplore the fact that it was rigidly academic. That kind of training doesn’t let you expand: you’ve got to be a major talent to expand beyond the forms. And I never studied acting either, because when I saw what the schools were producing — people who walked and talked and acted alike — | thought, this isn’t the way you should form an actor. You should let him express his own identity. When I was in Beaux Arts, they tried to teach me how to compose a drawing. You don’t teach that : balancing a painting is an instinctive thing. I would have liked to study the technical aspects of film, but P’ve always felt that practical experience in the field is more enriching. I find something stale about training — but that’s a purely personal opinion. Cinema Canada: Where did you begin work in animation ? Micheline Lanctdt : | started in the NEB. I presented a project, and it was accepted — the arrogance of youth. | stayed there for a year-and-a-half, did all the ‘kitchen’ aspects. | worked on all the other projects, assembly line work, and after a year-anda-half I got fed up, because I wasn’t getting ahead with my project. So we parted company — rather bitterly. I ended up at Potterton Productions, where | started at the bottom again and worked all the way up. I became an assistant animator after a year, and assisted for a feature. I looked at the work, and figured ‘That isn’t so hard,’ so I went to the boss and said, “I think I should animate.” At that time, there were very few female animators, | think maybe two in Canada, and four in the States. And they guy said, “OK. I'm going to give you a scene to animate. If it works, you’re an animator. If it doesn’t, you're fired.” And I swallowed hard and worked like crazy for two months. Boy, did I learn fast! 1 became an animator, and subsequently animated the next feature, which was The Selfish Giant. It got nominated for an Oscar. Cinema Canada : What made you leave animation ? Micheline Lanctét : I was going to go on, but I’m temperamentally unsuited to the work. It’s monastic: twelve hours a day ona light box. And then! met Gilles Carle. And again, | learned by the steeping process. I was catapulted into acting for cinema (La vraie nature de Bernadette) which of course I said I could do. I was panicky for the first few days, and then began to learn how it was done. I had acted before in theatre productions, and now | was learning film acting. It was fantastic ! Acting didn’t qualify me to be a director. hagas tei tnsiniesininasacticaiiicaill Cinema Canada: From an acting point of view, were you at all intimidated by the technology on set? Micheline Lanctét: No, because I was familiar with film teamwork from animation, which is nothing but teamwork. Although you work independently, you re drawing for a camera, you’ve got to know the cinematic language. And when shot animation, I was working with people, and it was the same as features, except for the set. So it was fascinating, because I didn’t quite know what the functions were on set. But you learn very quickly. And I would use all the idle time — and there were hours of it — to observe what was going on. It became very useful when I became a director. I didn’t learn about camera placement — that was the Barbara Samuels is a free-lance writer working in Montreal.