Denys Arcand unveils upcoming new movie Le triomphe de l'argent
Acclaimed Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand says the idea behind his new movie, which he'll start filming this fall, came to him after two men walked into an Old Montreal boutique in 2010 and fatally shot two people.
"I started fantasizing about what happened, why it happened like that, so I started an investigation," Arcand said on stage at the Olympia Friday, flanked by the crew of about 20 actors who will be in the movie called Le triomphe de l'argent (The Triumph of Money).
Arcand collected newspaper and magazine articles about that fateful day, March 18, 2010, at the Flawnego boutique. He even spoke with the Montreal police detective in charge of the case.
Thriller with intellectual twists
The resulting screenplay by Arcand is a crime thriller with intellectual twists, as the filmmaker described Tuesday.
The young Quebec actor Alexandre Landry plays the movie's protagonist, a philosophy major at McGill University, who finds a "load of …money and tries to figure out what to do with this," Landry told CBC News.
"It's interesting to figure out what the relationship with money in society is and he thinks about this a lot," he added.
That relationship is one that is explored in the movie, but don't think there's a message behind it, says Arcand.
"My films have no message — they're stories," he said. "These stories are hopefully meaningful and what do they mean exactly, I don't know."
Other actors in the movie include Pierre Curzi, Rémy Girard, Louis Morissette, Patrick Abellard, newcomer to the big screen Maripier Morin and comedian Eddy King.
'It's never about 1 person'
Arcand is behind some of Quebec's biggest titles, including Le déclin de l'empire américain and Les invasions barbares, which won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and was nominated for best original screenplay in 2004.
The story — just like Arcand's inspiration — starts with the holdup and then branches out into a group of characters' lives and how they are somehow intertwined.
"It's never about one person," Arcand said of his films, speaking to CBC News. "There's always friends, maybe because also friendship is something I think that is very, very important in my own life."
The movie is set to start filming Sept. 5 and wrap up Nov. 8. It is expected to be in theatres next year.
