Billie’s story—her sunburn, first love at first sight, and famous first time—is a little (a lot) hers. Just days before “Cœur de slush” hits the big screen, writer and screenwriter Sarah-Maude Beauchesne has agreed to return to the scene of the crime with us.
Posted at 1:39pm. Updated at 7:00 a.m.
So to speak: we understand each other. To be clear, there isn’t even a hint of crime in this story, except of course when we deem consuming a certain blue drink as a form of crime too cute! However, a very emotional story would be missing, which fully addresses youth, the search for love and ultimately the search for oneself. Blue raspberry slush included, we will have understood.
Heart of Slush trailer
His paradise in Estrie
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne grew up in the Bromont area. As a bonus (coincidence?) she’s just moved there permanently, to a lovely house in Knowlton. While several scenes of the film inspired by her novel and directed by Mariloup Wolfe, which was released on June 16th, were shot in Saint-Sauveur, the author gave us an appointment here, in Estrie, on a sunny early morning Tomorrow May to look back on her own youth. It is 16 years old. His big questions.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne remembers her 16 years.
I have so many memories here!
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, author and screenwriter, on Bromont
From Bromont Water Park to Saxby Road, which she walked mornings and evenings as a teenager to get to her job as a lifeguard, is the author of ‘Lèche-vitrines’ and ‘Maxime’ (the sequel to ‘Cœur de slush’ , written in her twenties) (of which we’re also promised an adaptation soon) doesn’t hide its “nostalgia” here.
“I realize I was really lucky to experience all of this,” she says as she walks to the base of the slides, where she worked for four summers. “I had a cozy, creative and romantic teenage years! I had a lot of friends and the weather was always nice! she bursts out laughing, her freckles showing her support, shared by young Liliane Skelly, who plays her Billie in the film, with whom the resemblance is striking. “I had the best parents, full of love and the best job in the world! » Note for interested young people who are looking for a holiday job…
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“I had the best job in the world! laughs author Sarah-Maude Beauchesne.
Admittedly, not everything is happy in the Cœur de slush either. There are also many roller coasters. There are tears and real, real sorrows. But also lots of laughs. “Yes, I had all the insecurities in the world,” the 33-year-old author admits, but so does everyone else. And that in a healthy and happy context! »
joy and truth
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne wanted to transfer this joy to the canvas. “Yes, it’s a happy film, it was important to me. The joy was very present at the time, both in writing and on the set! […] I wanted to make a realistic teenage film, but also full of hope, color and poetry. […] Yes, Billie asks herself a thousand questions […]. It’s a thankless time, but it’s also the time to learn to love yourself. »
And that is well said: because yes, there is joy in this story, a cozy interior, but also a lot of truth. Aside from seeming lightness, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne has always had an interest in “authenticity”. A concern that is undoubtedly not unrelated to the success of his novel, which was published by Hurtubise in 2014 and sold no fewer than 30,000 copies (including a deluxe edition with unpublished excerpts from the script and photos from the film’s making), is in bookstores available lately).
“When I was in my early adulthood, there was no work that spoke authentically about desire and sexuality. It was either trash or a blue flower,” she recalls. Never realistic what.
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In a field along Saxby Road not far from where Sarah-Maude Beauchesne celebrated her prom
Why doesn’t anyone talk about pain, discomfort or approval?
Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, author and screenwriter
But she, she dared. Without filter. Because the fact is, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne was “disappointed” with her famous and long-awaited “first time,” and she asked herself, “But why isn’t anyone talking about it like that?” […] Why is no one talking about the very blurry line between desire and love? I was just told to put on a condom. But we miss so many nuances! When I was young and writing, I wanted to say exactly what I experienced to make sure it was true. »
Even though the story (which was then sent to eight publishers before it was finally accepted!) was adapted for the purposes of the film, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne nevertheless made it her “mission” to always reach out to young people. Even more than ten years later, she emphasizes, the issues are still exactly the same. Basically: “Stop hating yourself, the importance of friends and fun.” Above all: the fragile art of existing in the eyes of the other, “when it is sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes intoxicating”.
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Back to basics for Sarah-Maude Beauchesne in front of her brand new home in Knowlton, which oddly resembles the one in the film
And Sarah-Maude Beauchesne did not hesitate to emphasize certain points that she considers particularly important and which are still not talked about enough: the social construction of virginity, feminism and, of course, consensus. Between two or three sips, you know what.
In cinemas from June 16th.