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L'usure (By Attrition) 1986 - 8 min. - fiction - shot in Super 8 posted in 16mm French with English subtitles A desert street, two girls: Jo is there to break up with her lover. Lou doesn't want to. An urban lesbian western where sharp words replace gun shots. with Isabelle Miquelon and Marie-Hélène Montpetit |
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| presentation: Before undertaking our second year of university dedicated to 16mm film, Stéphan Fortin and I wanted to start by confronting the difficulties of shooting in Super 8. From the first days of September, we had gathered friends together to shoot this short film. I woke up one morning with the whole script in my head: a spaghetti western with no guns. I called my two childhood friends who had studied theatre and offered them the text. They accepted. The Programme d’Aide aux Jeunes Créateurs didn’t yet exist, so I wrote, naively, to a handful of company directors to ask them for a little money to pay for the equipment and film. Only Pierre Péladeau replied (probably because he had been a friend of my father’s in their youth). I never knew whether or not he’d read the script, but he sent us a cheque for $150, which was used for the wrap party. My only disappointment about this shoot was not having been able to integrate the close-ups of the girls’ eyes. We wanted to film them like those of Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson: that is, menacing.
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awards and press: Grand Prize, Film category, Quebec competition and Best Actor Award Union des Artistes to Marie-Hélène Montpetit Festival du Jeune Cinéma de Montréal, March 1987
Jo (the blonde) Isabelle Miquelon Lou (the brunette) Marie-Hélène Montpetit screenplay and director Jeanne Crépeau director of photography Stéphan Fortin camera Diane Jutras camera assistant Chantal Neveu sound Richard Lavoie boom Cyr-Marc Débien location manager Maurice Van Themsche continuity Sylvie Lamarre costumes and sets Giannina Gouin make up Cristina Gouin shooting stills Louise Oligny production assistants Daniel Bruneau, Josée Cardinal André Goulet, Marc Langlois Suzanne Lebrun, Robert Préfontaine and Robert Tremblay video images Maurice Van Themsche editing Jeanne Crépeau and Stéphane Fortin sound design Serge Lafortune titles Sylvain Fréchette administration Cristina Gouin thanks to Maryse and Jean-Pierre Shawn and Serge Edouardo and Nathalie Alain and Daniel Igor and Denis Marie-Lise and Michel Myriam and Philippe Jean-Claude and Johanne Diane and Jean. thanks to Kim, Michel and Sylvaine and (not credited) Catherine and Carlos This film could'nt have been done without the personnal commitment of every cast and crew member and the technical assistance of Studio D of the National Film Board of Canada production Hétérétrange et oclite 1985 |
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