(Berlin) Before the iPhone there was the BlackBerry. The first smartphone, which took 45% of the market at the peak of its popularity in the early 2000s, had a distinctive feature: it was Canadian.
Posted at 2:03 p.m
This is the story of the rise of a small company started by geeks in Waterloo, Ontario, Research In Motion (RIM) and its equally brutal fall, as Canadian filmmaker and comedian Matt Johnson recounts in BlackBerry, which premiered Friday in official competition was presented by the 73rd Berlinale.
This docu-fiction about the two men, Mike Lazaridis, the computer genius, and Jim Balsillie, the marketing shark, behind RIM’s success and debacle, is a loose adaptation of the book by Globe and Mail journalists Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, Losing That Signal: The untold story behind BlackBerry’s extraordinary rise and spectacular fall.
The film begins with an interview with Canada’s great communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, who spearheaded the electronic commerce and teleworking revolution of the 1960s. And images of Montreal actor William Shatner, aka James T. Kirk in the Star Trek series, a source of inspiration for more than one computer scientist. In short, it’s a film that shows its colors (red and white) right from the start.
“Too often in English Canada we are content to make American substitute films that we try to emulate. It’s pathetic,” Matt Johnson said at a news conference on Friday, proudly wearing a Toronto Blue Jays t-shirt and a matching blue headband in his hair.
PHOTO JOEL C RYAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
BlackBerry director Matt Johnson
Which is ironic in that rumors could say that BlackBerry is a poor man’s social network. A film that seems to have American ambitions, made with modest Canadian funds. Jay Baruchel, who plays Mike Lazaridis, wears a ridiculous wig and it’s clear Glenn Howerton (Jim Balsillie) isn’t bald in real life.
However, this traditional way of filming is not without its charms. Blackberry doesn’t avoid cartoons, but thanks to effective dialogues, unexpected twists and a rather intriguing narration, it doesn’t bore you. “Have you ever heard the expression: perfection is the enemy of good? Balsillie asks Lazaridis. “Bien is the enemy of mankind,” replies Lazaridis, who according to the film created the BlackBerry prototype overnight using parts from calculators and children’s toys.
To bring depth to his characters, Matt Johnson, who co-wrote the film with Matt Miller, met with former RIM employees, including a Quebecer who kept his journal from the period. Matt Johnson was also inspired to interpret his character as Doug Fregin, best friend of Mike Lazaridis and one of the founders of Research In Motion. A friendly movie geek wearing a John McEnroe headband, looking like the main character of the movie Napoleon Dynamite, fooling around in the office.
Fregin, who fell out with Lazaridis, sold his stake in RIM when its stock market rating was at its peak. According to Matt Johnson, he would be one of the richest men in the world. In 2007, Steve Jobs announced the arrival of the iPhone, which eventually spelled the death knell for BlackBerry.
Two years later, Ontario and United States securities regulators fined Mike Lazaridis, and specifically Jim Balsillie, who resigned as the company’s presidency after making a retroactive purchase of shares.
Balsillie, who hasn’t seen Matt Johnson’s film, probably won’t be thrilled with the portrait he’s painting of himself. The businessman is portrayed as a shamelessly ambitious man who is willing to do anything, even breaking the rules and breaking his word, to achieve his goals. A spirited alpha male more interested in buying an NHL team than the future of RIM, he has nonetheless transformed it from a fire-breathing landmark of retarded teenagers into a multi-billion dollar corporation. A time long.
The Quebec Exception
Like the Montrealer at heart, Jay Baruchel – who has Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the CH “tattooed on his heart” – despite the reputation, Matt Johnson does not intend to go into exile in the United States to continue his career in the Hollywood – Sirens. But he has no tongue in his pocket when asked to define Canadian cinema.
PHOTO JOHN MACDOUGALL, AGENCE FRANCE PRESS
Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis in BlackBerry.
“We haven’t yet clearly defined what English Canadian cinema is,” says the 37-year-old independent filmmaker, known for his mockumentaries (especially The Dirties). “I say ‘Canadian English’. In French Canada it is different. Our institutions are not doing enough to support young talent in English Canada. While in Quebec it seems to be a priority. »
Noting that “English Canada is constantly struggling against America’s cultural hegemony,” Jay Baruchel, who made his mark in Hollywood films like ‘Almost Famous’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’ at a young age, added that the Canadian cinema has long recognized “the cold and dysfunctional sexual misery” inherited from 1990s films by David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan or Don McKellar.
BlackBerry is nothing like a Cronenberg film. It’s a dramatic comedy that would look like Norbourg if the film had been directed by Maxime Giroux like The Office series. In Waterloo, Toronto, London and Hamilton.