Ten years ago, while Guillaume Laurin was still a theater student at Cégep Lionel-Groulx, the two Blainville artists, together with Julie Groleau Couronne Nord, founded a multidisciplinary production company that has since overseen not only their short and feature films, but those of of their collaborators.

Their first production was … an ambitious play, we will destroy, by Philip Bottin, performed on a soccer field with 34 actors as part of OFFTA, under the auspices of Dave St-Pierre. and their first feature film, up downhill, the number one producer in Quebec for the Netflix platform, has been viewed since the beginning of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, by 31 million viewers around the world. A feat for a Quebec film directed by an unknown (Laliberté), set in a winter survival retreat.

Couronne Nord’s latest feature film, Very nice dayThe intimate film about loneliness and alienation, due out May 6, is unique in that it was produced entirely using the cell phone of director Patrice Laliberte. It stars Guillaume Laurin as a bicycle courier who delivers suspicious packages to inappropriate places, on behalf of a rather sleazy boss (Marc Beaupré).

Jeremy (Lauren) is also a conspiracy theorist convinced to live in a parallel reality, matrix, since the end of the world was announced in 2012 by the Mayans. In between two installments, he’s recording a podcast about his weird theories. Until the day his routine is turned upside down by famous influencer (Sarah Jane Labrousse) who becomes his next-door neighbor, which fuels a new virtual obsession at home.

Scenario Very nice day, which bears the signatures of Laliberté, Laurin, Nicolas Krief and Geneviève Beaupré, was somewhat improvised from the canvas and was particularly inspired by the experiences of Guillaume Laurin. Younger and penniless, he worked as a “servant” for a shadowy organization — “I was going to get my paycheck in the bottom of my basement,” he says with a laugh — and two Instagrammers were neighbors.

They were facing rejection from institutions for two years, with up downhillwhen, in 2018, Laliberte and Lauren had the idea to make a film inspired by Gaspar Noé’s way of doing things and his draft scenarios (for Irreversibleespecially).

“We removed the writing from the cinema and went straight to the action,” explains Patrice Laliberte, whom we met on the balcony of a café at La Petite Petrie. “Practice writing on set, which is a rarity in the theater, and even more so in the cinema,” adds Guillaume Loren.

The idea of ​​mobile photography (Google Pixel 2) quickly took root.

Also, the basis of the scenario was naturally based on this technique, constantly in the hands of the hero. “It was interesting that the instrument spoke formally with the script,” says Guillaume Loren. The mysterious character he embodies – which is practically of all levels – has reactions stalking Sociopath on social media.

In some ways, this reminds us of Jeremiah of the character played by Joaquin Phoenix You weren’t really herea new movie by Lynne Ramsay, or even the famous Travis Bickle movie taxi driver by Martin Scorsese. “It is a fulfillment of taxi driverPatrice Laliberte explains. Back to the core material of this movie I studied it from edge to edge and from all sides. »

The script could have been modified according to the vicissitudes of complex filming, which due to the good news stopped being financed up downhill. “We finished filming the first block and the Netflix show arrived. We paused everything and met again to finish the movie after that. up downhill “Then there was a pandemic,” says Lauren. “Then there was a pandemic,” Laliberte recalls, which explains why the movie wasn’t completed until 2021.

Shooting with a smartphone means not only that scenes can be resumed at two-year intervals without incurring many costs, but also that shooting locations can be accessed without warning with a reduced crew.

Lauren and Liberty, for example, were photographed in the Montreal metro without asking for permission. “If we ask for permission, we will never get it, so it is better to take the permission directly! The script is built with such strength,” the director explains. There are striking sequences in Very nice day Where Clouds Loren weaves his bike between cars and buses. Patrice Laliberte followed him on his trail, also on his bike, one hand on the handlebar and the other holding his mobile phone…

“This is the section Donkey from the movie! ‘ says Laurin, who comes from the world of skateboarding (like his character from the web series fork). “Lucky we didn’t have the money at first! Laliberté admits. Because we couldn’t do all that. Once you get the money, you have to go see the insurance companies, which is definitely not!”

without being photographed in a hurry, Very nice day has a punk or DIY side (do it yourself) is fully assumed. Lauren, as Laliberté likes to remember, was an actor, screenwriter, producer, fashion designer, instrument designer, makeup artist, and hairstylist at the same time for this photo shoot.

Guillaume Lauren, who will be in the cast scuba diverWritten by Frances Leclerc, based on the bestselling novel by Stephane LaRue, Prepares for Next Year, in Ducep, the theatrical adaptation of the comic story by Samuel Kantin White horse. He is also working with Patrice Laliberte on a screenplay based on Paul Serge Forest’s bestselling novel. everything is ori. A more ambitious film on the official level they hope to produce with the help of institutions (SODEC and Telefilm Canada).

The duo wouldn’t stop themselves from making other movies with a cell phone (as Steven Soderbergh did for example with crazy).

Especially if you have to wait years in the bureaucratic maze of public funding before getting the green light for your projects.

“These are more intimate films,” says Patrice Laliberte. I wouldn’t make a big movie with a mobile phone. It is another relationship to the position of a filmmaker. We are much more at work, investors. It’s the mobility you don’t have with a team of 70 people. »

The director, who learned his craft in the keno movement and with short films shown at festivals, did not above all want his film not to be shown in theaters (it will be shown in 13 houses, starting next Friday). He may, like Guillaume Laurin, have received his film education thanks to the Video Club and Video on Demand, the importance of cinema has never been greater to him.

“I wouldn’t have said the same before, but my speech has changed in a couple of years,” he says. Seeing people, hearing them laugh, is not the same relationship at all. After the pandemic, I find room to be essential. »

Very nice day Shows in cinemas starting Friday, May 6th.