Cinema Canada (May 1980)

Infecting her neighbours with the joy of life, Lanctdt in her first leading role, in La vraie nature de Bernadette director's prerogative. But I learned to function with the people. I love film technicians — theyre a great breed. | used to hang around them a lot, and absorb a lot of information, which became very useful. You bluff your way through. I'd hear a cameraman talking about a 9.8 lens, and so at one point on set, 'd say, “Why don’t we try a 9.8mm lens ?” It can be awfully handy. Cinema Canada: What about the transition from one side of the camera to the other ? Micheline Lanctét : Acting didn’t qualify me to be a director. They’re two totally different professions that appeal to totally opposite ends of the personality. It took me about four days to get into the directors personality, to convince myself that I was a director. I think the vision of a director is a very peculiar thing, and you have it or you don’t. You can either carry it through and impress forty-two people that that’s the way it should be, or you can’t. And that’s what I learned in four days. ...few directors actually know actors. Cinema Canada: Did you find yourself more sympathetic to the performers than a director without an acting background would have been ? Micheline Lanctét: Oh yes. I’ve always been a bit irritated by the fact that very few directors actually know actors. It creates a lot of tension, because actors are usually the last people consulted on set. It’s a very unsettling feeling. You're shoved in front of a light, and you’ve got to hit your mark, and you can’t move a certain way, cause you'll be out of focus. Because most actors aren’t familiar with film techniques, it’s very disturbing for them. On stage you’ve got an area you can work in, and a public that responds to you ; but on a film set, you're just a cog in the wheel. Because I was aware of that, I think my actors felt very secure. I wanted to give them latitude, and I think that, asa result, the performances are very rounded. It allows for very discreet performances, too, because insecure actors will often ham it up. You have to keep a balance between the actors and the technicians, and we had it on my film. If an actor fluffs his lines, and the technicians are sitting around muttering under their breath, the actor becomes more insecure and blows the line again. So you have to side with your actors, and tell them never mind, we’re going to do it till you get it right ; and you have to tell you technicians, pleasantly, to shut up. Mutual respect comes out of that. It if doesn’t, it’s technicians against actors, and I’ve seen that happen. Too often, directors get overburdened by their technical problems, and they separate from the set, which is the worst thing that can happen. Cinema Canada: Were the crew members you used the same people you had worked with on other pictures ? Micheline Lanctét: Yes. I had worked with them on a picture where! had made a scene during shooting, and they all came onto the set the first day petrified. It was very funny, because they realized after two days that I was a different person. And I explained that, as an actor, you are at the mercy of everything. An actor's job is to be emotional, and you have to deal with it. You have to manage their outbursts so that they don’t contaminate the set, but you have to let them be emotional. A performer's emotions are skin-deep : if they're deeper than that, the actor can’t play. Cinema Canada: Was homme a tout faire a pet project you’d wanted to launch for a long time ? Micheline Lanctét: Well, | was determined to do it, but I never expected to do it. It was like a kind of dream, because when I wrote it, I wasn’t going to direct it. Having lived with a director for six years, | knew it was an incredible amount of work, and I didn’t feel strong enough to take it on. Plus the fact that I didn’t know any Cinema Canada/7