“The Cheaters”: Golf for Psychopaths

Filmmaker Louis Godbout wrote and directed the black comedy starring Christine Beaulieu, Benoit Gouin, Steve Laplante and Alexandre Goyette. subject? A camera on the golf course…

An outdoor camera? Yes. “I started playing golf at the age of eight with my grandmother, my favorite partner, explained Louis Godbout in an interview with QMI Agency. At the same time, I don’t really care about golfers, I’m just ridiculous on the golf course. What I find funny is that four hours into the game, I’m out of brains. I am obsessed with the ball. I find myself ridiculous. We are in a very wide area, we have walked six kilometers, but we are locked in our heads.

The entire plot revolves around the star, Florence, played by Christine Beauly. In the film, she is “Pitoon”, a yoga teacher, very Zen. Along with his boyfriend, Hubert (Benoit Gouin), and his partner André (Steve Laplante) – the two men own a seniors’ living business – they play their part until a certain Michel (Alexandre Goet) joins them and changes the game. But the whole thing is presented as a black and grating fable.

“Golf has an inherent sense of irony. It’s a sport where everyone is bad because it’s hard,” says the filmmaker. “Everyone works hard, everyone practices, but everyone fails. It’s a fair play, etiquette sport where players lie all the time, cheat all the time.” do, tell their golf stories.It’s a natural theater for the irony of behavior.

And the behavior is absurd. Like André with his remote-controlled shopping cart – “Yes, it really exists”, confirm Benoît Gouin and Louis Godbout -, Florence and her Yoga pose between two holes, Michael and his glasses of beer whenever he can, or even Sebastien René psycho- on the golf course. The role of Sepp, a rigid employee.

“Sarcastic is natural. Showing a golf course with a Mozart mass from the beginning of the film sets the tone. We feel that we are not in full reality and therefore actors can sometimes say lines that are not natural, if they say they believe it,” he said.

The actors were able to benefit from golf lessons and prepare for their roles. Because cheaters Filmed in the summer of 2020, the group is seen alone in the “Bromont Inn” as the rooms are closed to the public. Everyone met constantly, which made it possible to develop an incredible bond.

“Though Florence’s character is so superficial, one cannot help suspecting her sarcasm,” said Louis Godbout, referring to Christine Beaulieu’s “natural sarcasm.”

Florence is also a yoga teacher. “The challenge for me is in the interpretation, the rhythm. Florence is slow, she thinks she’s very Zen, very composed. But the main challenge for an actress is to reveal her character’s clothes, as well as the very suggestive poses. “It’s easy for me to play a big role. the coat Winter, I am very camouflaged in my character. There, I was very naked, literally. This is an area where we are more vulnerable and I have to be very confident to be able to do what I have done.

Benoît Gouin also had to undergo a mental exercise to create Hubert, a task he described in relation to the theatre. “I played Don Juan by Moliere and when you come across a character like that… you try to put on the Don Juan mantle, but it doesn’t work. Then, one day, we realize that Don Juan is Don Juan. He always has a part of himself in a character.

And Florence isn’t just an ambiguous character — “She’s also a psychopath,” the filmmaker insists — the three men also have their secrets and their neuroses. And it all comes down to the golf course. Benoît Gouin points out that “no one escapes what is revealed to himself.”

cheaters It hits Quebec theaters on August 12.