To the already difficult task of bringing the fate of a criminal to the screen, Luc Picard added an extra challenge: to engage the viewer in the amazing story of prolific killer Gérald Gallant, despite the very beige personality of a seemingly uneventful man.
Posted at 2:00 am
Marc-André Lussier The press
The man who is said to have the most assassinations in Quebec on his sinister list – 28 murders and around fifteen attacks – has absolutely nothing to do with the profile of Henry Hill in Goodfellas, nor, moreover, with any of the characters that make up Martin Scorsese’s cinema have shaped, no more than with the godfather’s mafiosi.
Bringing to the screen Sylvain Guy’s (Liste noire, Mafia Inc.) screenplay, loosely inspired by a book published by journalists Éric Thibault and Félix Séguin, Luc Picard focuses instead on understanding – but without Providing answers – how such a “normal” guy, coming from an all round poor background, could manage to kill so many strangers in cold blood. In this respect, the actor Picard delivers a dazzling performance in that he manages to translate with great sobriety the inner world of a man for whom the only way to integrate – and be appreciated by – a group is to do the work well to make sure he is prompted to do so. He therefore sees his role as that of a soldier who has a mission to fulfill, whereby the people to be killed are “bad people” in his eyes.
A great paradox
That is to say that we are reproducing here the great paradox of a man who, on the one hand, can kill at close range someone whom a criminal organization is trying to make disappear without feeling any kind of emotion, but is able to in the other aspects vibrate of his life. Luc Picard brilliantly maintains this balance, in addition to being very accurate in evoking the character’s stutter.
PHOTO ERIC MYRE PROVIDED BY LES FILMS OPALE
In addition to directing Confessions, Luc Picard also lends his feature films to Gérald Gallant, the film’s protagonist.
Confessions works on the basis of a film noir – sometimes with a touch of humor – in which certain marginal characters also have the opportunity to make their mark. We should also remember the performances of David La Haye, remarkable in the skin of the accomplice with the well-hung tongue, of Sandrine Bisson in the role of the one who wants to be her Clyde’s Bonnie, of Éveline Gélinas as a wife who has nothing knows of her husband’s activities, as well as Catherine De Léan and Louise Portal. The latter both embody the role of Gérald’s mother, who is cruel to her son all her life.
Beyond the protagonist’s murderous activities, illustrated in a dry and uncompromising manner, Luc Picard also paints a portrait of the petty crime that emerges from the poorest fringes of Quebec society. The story is based on the testimonies of Gérald Gallant during the numerous interrogations he had to face after being arrested by a non-commissioned officer (Emmanuel Charest).
Sober and effective, in the tradition of the genre, Confessions is a well-acted, solidly produced film that will delight those fascinated by portraits of criminals.
Also note the quality of the score, composed by Daniel Bélanger. The latter also signs the second soundtrack of his career, 17 years after L’Audition, by the same Luc Picard.
indoors
theatre
confessions
Luca Picard
With Luc Picard, Eveline Gelinas, Emmanuel Charest
1:49
★★★½