2023-07-19 04:00:12
It is said that critics are more lenient with Quebec cinema. Maybe, but that didn’t stop them from firing red balls at some local films. And in many cases, the public has not been there either. Our cinema has its share of failures, even turnips. Le Devoir looks back on the history of these great productions which flopped. An opportunity sometimes also to rehabilitate these unloved films.
It had to be the “Quebec Titanic”, especially since the theme song was performed by none other than Celine Dion. But despite a colossal budget of $33 million and the presence of international stars such as Gérard Depardieu and Tim Roth, Nouvelle-France, by the late Jean Beaudin, took on water. The ambitious historical fresco, starring David La Haye and Noémie Godin-Vigneau, did not have the expected success in theaters and received a critical reception that was icy to say the least. Almost 20 years later, very few people remember the monster hype that surrounded its release.
New France was relegated to oblivion. The film does not appear on any platform. As if we had wanted to erase all traces of what was the most expensive shoot in the history of Quebec cinema. The theme song, a sweet power-ballad a la My Heart Will Go On written by Luc Plamondon, is one of the only songs in Celine Dion’s catalog not to be available on Spotify and Apple Music.
“New France should at least be on the platforms. It’s an imperfect film, but it clearly deserves to be seen. If only for the sets and costumes, which are magnificent. The artistic direction is breathtaking,” laments actress Noémie Godin-Vigneau, the star of the film.
Melodrama more romantic than historical
The scenario of New France is very freely inspired by La Corriveau, this woman who fueled several legends after being hanged in the middle of Quebec for having killed her husband. In Jean Beaudin’s film, Marie-Josephte Corriveau has become Marie-Loup Carignan (Noémie Godin-Vigneau), a free-spirited widow raising her daughter France alone, camped by a very young Juliette Gosselin, who is making her first not on the big screen.
Against the backdrop of the Seven Years’ War, Marie-Loup falls madly in love with an attractive woodsman, François Le Gardeur (David La Haye). Their love is mutual, but impossible. The young woman must resolve to marry Xavier Maillard (Sébastien Huberdeau), a violent man who will be accidentally killed by little France. The poor child only sought to protect her mother from the abuse of her executioner. To avoid stigma for her daughter, Marie-Loup takes responsibility for a crime she did not commit. Like La Corriveau, she will end up hanging in front of the crowd, leaving behind her daughter and François Le Gardeur, the two loves of her life, as well as a country delivered to the English.
“It was a very rock’n’roll shoot. The storyline changed several times along the way. When I saw the film, I admit that I did not recognize my scenario, ”says screenwriter Pierre Billon, who had participated two years earlier in the film adaptation of A man and his sin by Charles Binamé. For New France, Pierre Billon, now 86 years old, had above all in mind a historical film which would present the Canadians as caught in a vice between the cruelty of the English and the cowardice of the French, ready to concede “a few acres of snow “.
Constant uncertainties
In the end, it was above all the love story that took over. Anyway, New France was never Pierre Billon’s project, but that of producer Richard Goudreau, who declined our interview request. The man behind the Les Boys franchise had dreamed for several years of transposing the story of Corriveau to the cinema. It was he who managed to convince donors in France and the United Kingdom to join the project.
However, this complex financial arrangement has often threatened to collapse. “Everything almost stopped several times. A few weeks before the start of filming, something new happened and we weren’t sure we could shoot, ”recalls Noémie Godin-Vigneau, who was 27 when she landed the role of Marie-Loup.
Additional uncertainty: the director Yves Simoneau, a time assigned to the project, ended up withdrawing. Jean Beaudin took over the torch a year before the shooting, which was complicated by its size. The feature film was simultaneously filmed with the same actors in both French and English, in the hope that the film would be sold overseas. Nouvelle-France, or Battle of the Brave in English, also required the reconstruction of Place Royale in a studio in Montreal. Scenes were also shot in Saguenay, Île d’Orléans, Nova Scotia, England and France.
Money doesn’t buy success
Obviously, these comings and goings have swallowed up a lot of resources. Jean Beaudin had to resolve not to re-enact the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. All this on top of having to manage the egos of foreign actors. Vincent Perez, Irène Jacob and even Jason Isaacs were a pleasant business, but it is said that Tim Roth gave Jean Beaudin a lot of trouble.
Gérard Depardieu, who plays a priest in New France, was for his part in good dispositions during his stay in Quebec. But true to form, “Gégé” did not learn his lyrics. The team members had to carry cards with them so that they could read his lines.
“The budget may have been over $30 million, but there’s not $30 million on screen. On the spot, we didn’t have the feeling that there was that much money. Once you pay the big stars, Celine Dion, Patrick Doyle [un réputé compositeur britannique] for music, it goes quickly. Would the film have been better if we had been able to have 20 more days of shooting? If we had been able to film the Battle of the Plains of Abraham? Maybe. Yes, there are flaws, but the fact remains that it is far from being a turnip. The actors were great, Jean’s direction is superb, ”says Marc Larose, who was the first assistant director on Nouvelle-France.
After the shoot, Marc Larose remained close to Jean Beaudin. The renowned director, to whom we owe in particular Le matou and Les filles de Caleb, never spoke to him again about New France. Noémie Godin-Vigneau knows that Jean Beaudin experienced the failure of this megaproduction with difficulty. Despite all the hazards surrounding this film, she will be eternally grateful to him for giving her the leading role. The actress regrets not having had the chance to tell him before his sudden death in 2019.
Relative failure
The critics did not spare the film when it was released in November 2004. A feature film by a “completely cheesy”, wrote Odile Tremblay in Le Devoir. Everything has been said in the press about the predictable love story and the omnipresence of dramatic music to underline the emotion in broad strokes. But no critics at the time were outraged because the role of Acoona, the main character’s Innu best friend, had been given to Bianca Gervais rather than to an Aboriginal actress.
The context of 2004 was very different from that of 2023. Today, one would say of a film which raises 2 million dollars at the box office in Quebec that it is a huge success. However, at the time, it was considered more of a commercial disappointment, especially since the distributor expected at least twice as much. The film, designed, let’s remember, for a foreign audience, was released in 2005 in France to general indifference.
René Angélil, though renowned for his flair, got it all wrong this time. In the making-of broadcast at prime time in the fall of 2004, he predicted a triumph for Jean Beaudin’s film. In the same program, Celine Dion said that one evening, returning home after her concert at Caesars Palace, she found her husband in tears, moved to tears after watching New France.
Let’s say the bar was set high. The public could only be disappointed.
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