Job par Alexis Lebrun January 13, 2023
Ten years following Tom à la ferme, the Quebec filmmaker is once once more adapting a play by Michel Marc Bouchard, but this time in an Original CANAL+ Creation which is one of the cultural events of the beginning of the year. Ambitious in content and splendid in form, La Nuit ou Laurier Gaudreault is a work as singular as the films of Xavier Dolan.
dysfunctional family
We understand why, when Xavier Dolan saw The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up in 2019, he quickly wanted to adapt this piece by Michel Marc Bouchard. Because behind its lengthy title hides a family drama regarding a dysfunctional family whose all members suffer from more or less serious neuroses, something that irrigates a large part of the work of the Quebec director.
This time, it is the confusion of a sibling that is at the heart of the plot. In 1991, a tragedy occurred during the famous “Night when Laurier Gaudreault woke up“, which explodes the friendly trio formed by Laurier (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie) with Julien Larouche (Patrick Hivon) and his sister Mireille (Julie Le Breton).
Twenty-eight years later, in 2019, the consequences of that night go far beyond these three characters. While Madeleine, the mother of the family, is dying, most of her children are at her bedside. All but one in reality: Mireille, who cut ties with her family to become a great thanatologist, and whose services are precisely required by her own mother to embalm her body. An unusual request, but this family is not common either.
Successful mix of genres
There is enough to offer an explosive reunion between Mireille and her brother Julien, while in the rest of the siblings, the youngest Elliot has just come out of rehab and the brave Denis (Éric Bruneau) seems as lost as the others. . We will have to go to the end of the five episodes to understand how “The Night Laurier Gaudreault Woke Up“changed the fate of the whole family.
Very comfortable with the serial format, Xavier Dolan multiplies the round trips between 1991 and 2019 without getting lost, while navigating between a string of genres with the same ease.
From this play which was behind closed doors, he draws a psychological thriller where the horror and the suspense of the mystery cohabit with the humor which often characterizes Dolan, and which is brought here in particular by Chantal (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), Julien’s adorably loud-mouthed companion, reminiscent of the great female characters in the filmmaker’s work.
Not just any series
Obviously screenwriter, director and editor of all episodes of the series, Xavier Dolan also plays the role of Elliot. He reunited with his faithful cinematographer André Turpin – present on his last five films and who allowed the series to rediscover the cinematographic grain of his cinema – as well as the essential Anne Dorval, who played the role of Madeleine.
And while Xavier Dolan’s penchant for sweet pop tunes is largely expressed in the series (no spoilers), there’s a real surprise on the music side, with the presence of soundtrack juggernaut Hans Zimmer. , accompanied here by David Fleming.
The richness of Dolan’s highly elaborate sets also reminds us that this work, shot visibly without making compromises, is not just any series. Ultimate proof: it will be presented in a few days at the Mecca of independent cinema, the Sundance festival.
The Night when Laurier Gaudreault woke up, episodes 1 to 5, from January 23 on CANAL+.
