TIFF

Great expectations

Denis Villeneuve talks about his TIFF short and his upcoming film on the Montreal Massacre

Last Updated: Saturday, September 6, 2008 | 1:43 PM ET

By Matthew Hays, CBC News

Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, whose short film Next Floor is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Canadian Press)

People have waited a long time for a new Denis Villeneuve movie — eight years, in fact. It was back in 2000 that the Montreal-based filmmaker released Maelstrom, his tortured meditation on fate. Narrated by a talking fish, the film received universal critical acclaim and a bevy of Genie awards.

But Villeneuve did a funny thing with all that momentum: He passed on the heavy schedule that would come with more feature film work, opting to make the odd commercial (but only to pay the bills). “I had three young children,” he says now. “I didn’t want to miss out on their childhoods.”

Villeneuve is ready to return to the fold, and he’s doing so in grand fashion. At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Villeneuve will be screening the short film Next Floor, a black comedy about a rather bizarre dinner party. Eleven gluttonous dinner guests devour odd-looking plates of food; as they graze, the floorboards give way, so that the table and those seated around it suddenly descend to the next floor. While some of the guests appear injured by the ongoing crashes, they keep munching on their grub.

The idea came to Villeneuve after he was approached by Montreal-based actress and arts patron Phoebe Greenberg. “Phoebe had seen Maelstrom and liked that,” he recalls. “She had bought a five-storey building in which she was going to build a gallery and cinema. She said that she wanted me to make some kind of homage to the building. I spent a few days in the country with her and writer Jacques Davidts and we came up with this idea.” Villeneuve says his stylistic approach to Next Floor was varied.

“I did think a lot of Samuel Beckett," he says. "But I also thought of Jacques Tati, and I liked the idea of this film being both dark and light at the same time. The way that [Stanley] Kubrick managed to make a comedy about nuclear angst with Dr. Strangelove is really inspiring.”

Villeneuve employed theatrical make-up and costumes for the actors in Next Floor. “Phoebe loves the theatre. I liked the idea of using very old technology, an old style, and then using new technology, like CGI, at the same time. It creates a unique chemistry.”

Villeneuve is acutely aware that many have been waiting for him to make another film. “To come back with a short is very unexpected. I was so thrilled to rediscover the pleasure of short films. I was very happy that it went to Cannes. Short films are so often written off, and it’s hard for them to get seen. This was a pure short — we weren’t trying to make the short version of a feature film. It stands on its own.”

A scene from Denis Villeneuve's short film Next Floor, a black comedy about an unusual dinner party. (TIFF)

The other thing that thrilled Villeneuve were his working conditions. Thanks to Greenberg’s organization, Phi Group, the budget for the film was completely covered. “Next Floor was made with total freedom; there were no worries about money. It became about the total pleasure of cinema. Usually, you do a feature film and you must wait for the critical and audience response, and of course the main worry is the financing. This was like making a drawing, having the satisfaction that it exists, and not having any commercial pressure.”

The other film that Villeneuve had hoped to have ready for this year’s TIFF was Polytechnique, his feature based on the 1989 Montreal massacre, in which Marc Lepine shot and killed 14 female students and then turned the gun on himself. Villeneuve is hesitant to discuss the feature, as memories of the production are still very fresh. “We just finished shooting it. It is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do. I don’t know how people will react.”

Many observers were surprised when Villeneuve announced that his first feature in eight years would be about that shocking incident; many commentators have claimed the massacre should be left alone, so as to avoid any possible glorification of the killer. One script reader at Telefilm apparently suggested that Polytechnique should never be made. “I understand how they feel,” Villeneuve says. “This isn’t an easy topic, nor will it be an easy film.”

Villeneuve says he consulted with the families of victims, and did extensive interviews with people who were there on that fateful night, including police officers and people who had survived the shooting. “This is not a portrait of a killer,” Villeneuve insists. “I’m more interested in the students and the impact it had on them. There are a lot of killers in the cinema now, and I wasn’t interested in making another one.

“This film was very complicated to do. You have a responsibility in every frame. Every shot felt like a moral decision. Every angle we chose felt it had a moral weight to it.” But he confirms that the actual event will be depicted on the big screen. “The actual massacre is there. Right now we have all the images, but I’m not sure how much of it we’ll show.”

While sweating over the final cut of Polytechnique, Villeneuve is just glad he has Next Floor arriving at about the same time. He says it gives him something he can show his three children, who range in age from 8 to 12.

“The other films,” he admits, “are far too violent.”

Next Floor screens at TIFF on Sept 6 and 7.

Matthew Hays is a writer based in Montreal.