Vanishing Lines | When the balloon of friendship bursts

Emily Cote
Press

“What a comforting, yet toxic and boring friendship. Mariana Mazza couldn’t have captured the plot of the film better with her usual outspokenness. Vanishing linesIt opens on July 6.

Dans cette comédie hautement dramatique, inspirée de la pièce de théâtre de Catherine Chabot, qui cosigne le scénario de son adaptation au cinéma avec Émile Gaudreault et qui porte le chapeau de coréalisatrice avec Miryam Bouchard, trois amies du secondaire se retrouvent à Montréal pour faire la fête. Or, la soirée dégénère rapidement en règlement de comptes et conflit de valeurs.

Fille d’immigrants, Sabina (Mariana Mazza) travaille en finance et fait beaucoup d’argent. Elle habite à Montréal, tout comme Valérie (Léane Labrèche-Dor), chroniqueuse culturelle pigiste dont les revendications sociales et écologiques cachent une jalousie face à l’argent. Quant à Audrey (Catherine Chabot), elle vit en Beauce, où elle s’occupe de sa mère malade et mène une vie trop rangée à son goût.

Les retrouvailles des trois amies commencent au vernissage d’Amber, la copine de Sabina (une anglophone francophile de la Colombie-Britannique interprétée par Victoria Diamond). Valérie et Audrey sont accompagnées de leurs amoureux.

Plombier, amateur de chasse et propriétaire d’un pick-up, le personnage de Maxime de Cotret (le fiancé d’Audrey) incarne « le gros bon sens » et l’authenticité. Pour sa part, Mickaël Gouin se glisse dans la peau d’un professeur de philosophie qui roule à vélo. Pauvre, il se considère néanmoins comme intellectuellement supérieur à la moyenne et il prône un couple ouvert avec Valérie…

Bien que tous cherchent à avoir du plaisir, leurs conversations finissent toujours par tourner au vinaigre en abordant des sujets chauds de leur génération comme l’environnement, la parentalité, l’argent et la reconnaissance, mais surtout, la dualité entre l’image et le bonheur.

Le concept de Lignes de fuite vient du philosophe Gilles Deleuze, a expliqué en conférence de presse Catherine Chabot, qui incarne une jeune femme anxieuse qui voudrait une vie « moins prévisible ». « C’est d’écouter la voix intérieure qui crie en nous […] To hear the inspiration to be us. »

Catherine Chabot said that she took “her anxieties and contradictions” to embody the six characters who have a “crossroads age” in their thirties. “That evening, everyone was in crisis and with blind spots. »

Despite their many differences, they all ask the same questions. “Am I in the right place and have I made the right choices? “, she continues.

One thing is for sure, the tension will rise throughout the reunion evening. As Catherine Chabot so eloquently put it, “We think Presto is going to blow up”.

Make yourself laugh and think

Catherine Chabot co-produced with Miriam Bouchard (My Own Circus, December 23) liked the latter that the film tackles environmental-concern with humor. To use his words, Vanishing lines Makes us both “laugh and really feel guilty”.

We won’t tell you more about these famous scenes… but know Vanishing lines Lives up to its comedy-drama title.

The clash of values ​​of the characters gives delicious dialogues reminiscent of those dialogues. Decline of the American Empire.

For Lena Labreche-Dore, the film denounces the condition we endure day after day until the “balloon bursts.” She is happy to see imperfect roles, including her own in the film. Like Valerie, we all feel jealous of our friends at some point in our lives. The movie deftly makes us understand that “we should not be like that”.

In fact, each of the six characters includes us and our surroundings. “We all have an anxious friend or another who makes annoying comments,” underlines Mariana Mazza.

“We’ve all experienced that one evening when we get drunk and start telling the truths we shouldn’t tell, adds Mikkel Gouin. What I like about the film is that no one is right, no one is wrong. »

“Humor is often the best way to deal with a subject,” adds the man, who is happy for a film to be as smart as it is funny.

45 minutes closed session

The scene leading up to the finale takes about forty minutes behind closed doors. In order for the game to be as convincing as possible, director Miriam Bouchard indicated that the actors and actresses rehearsed for a week before the cameras were turned on, and that filming took place largely in chronological order. “It is a great luxury. »

towards him, Mariana Mazza wants to thank Catherine Chabot for the role she was given without an audition in “On a Silver Platter”. “You saw my tenderness,” she told him.

At the press conference, Mariana Mazza said she admired Leanne Labreche-Dore and Catherine Chabot, who were breastfeeding their children during filming.

Say Catherine Chabot first wrote Vanishing lines Because she wondered if she could have children in our warming world…

“The answer is 16 months old and called Josephine. So yes, there is hope! “, she concluded.

Vanishing lines Hits theaters on July 6.