Cheaters: Golf for the mentally ill

Director Louis Goodbot wrote and directed a black comedy with Christine Beaulieu, Benoit Gwen, Steve Laplante and Alexandre Jewett. Theme? Camera on the golf course…

External camera? yes. Louis Goodbot explained during an interview with QMI: “I started playing golf at the age of eight with my grandmother who was my favorite partner. At the same time, I don’t really care about golfers, I find myself silly on a golf course. One of the things I find silly is that at four Hours into the match, he’s brainless. I’m obsessed with the ball. I find myself silly. We’re in a very big space, we’re walking six kilometers, but we’re trapped in our heads.

The star, around which the whole plot revolves, is Florence, played by Christine Beaulieu. In the movie, she is Peyton, a yoga teacher, very zen. With his friend, Hubert (Benot Gouin), and partner André (Steve Laplante) – the two men who have a residence company for seniors – playing their part until Michelle (Alexandre Goyette) joins them and change the game. But everything is presented as a dark and stern tale.

“There is an inherent dimension of sarcasm in golf. The director said it is a sport where everyone is bad because it is hard. Everyone is hardworking, everyone plays the sport, but everyone fails. It is a sport where so much emphasis is placed on fair play, etiquette, where players lie all the time. , and cheat all the time, and tell their golf stories. It’s a natural theater for the irony of behavior.”

The behavior is silly. Like André with his remote-controlled shopping cart—”yes, it does exist,” Benoit Gwen and Louis Goodbot asserted—Florence and yoga poses between two holes, Michelle and his glasses of beer whenever he can or even Sebastien René as Seb, the rigid psychic of the golf course.

The spelling was natural. Showing a golf course with a Mozart block from the beginning of the film sets the tone. On sent qu’on n’est pas en plein réalisme et donc les comédiens peuvent se permettre des fois de dire des répliques qui ne sont pas tout à fait naturelles , à condition de le dire comme s’ils y croyaient», at -adds.

The actors were able to take advantage of golf lessons and prepare for their roles. Because cheaters Filmed in the summer of 2020, the team ended up “at the Bromont Inn” alone because rooms were closed to the public. Everyone constantly met, which made it possible to develop an incredible bond.

“Even if Florence’s character is so superficial, one can only doubt her irony,” said Louis Goodbot, referring to Christine Beaulieu’s “natural irony.”

Florence is also a yoga teacher. “The translation challenge for me was in the rhythm. Florence is slow, you think, she is very zen, very composed. But the main challenge for the actress was the revealing clothing of her character, as well as the very suggestive poses.” Coat Winter, I’m very camouflaged in my personality. There, I’m so naked, quite literally. It’s an area where we are most vulnerable and I had to be very confident in being able to do what I did.

Benoît Gouin also had to perform a mental exercise to embody Hubert, a task that he explained with reference to the stage. “I played the character of Don Juan by Molière and when you deal with such a character… she tries to wear the Don Juan mantle, but it doesn’t work. Then, one day, we realized we were Don Juan. He always has a part of him in a role.”

And Florence is not the only mysterious character – “she’s also a psychopath,” the director insisted – the three men also have their secrets and their neuroses. And it all comes back to the golf course. Benoit Gwen noted that “no one can get away with what will reveal themselves.”

cheaters It arrives in Quebec theaters on August 12.