Expectation is running high - Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - When I met Chlo? Robichaud early last week, she'd just returned from the world's most prestigious film festival.

"Je descends tout juste de l'avion," said Robichaud with a laugh.

It was quite the whirlwind trip for this young woman. She's well aware that it's really something else for a 25-year-old filmmaker to make it to the Cannes Film Festival with her very first feature. Even better, her film, Sarah pr?f?re la course, was well received following its premi?re in Un Certain Regard, the non-competition section of the official selection. And she still sounds awed at the concept that she and her team made the trek up the stairs of the mythic Palais des festivals on the Croisette for the first public screening of her film.

"I was very happy with the reaction in Cannes," Robichaud said. "It was very well received by the public. So I'm back from Cannes feeling content. Now I'm just hoping the public here will go see my film."

She'll find out the answer to that question this Friday when it opens in Quebec.

The film's appearance at Cannes is only the latest example of the undeniable reality that films made chez nous are a hot item on the world-wide art-film circuit. It comes on the heels of three straight Oscar foreign-language nominations for Quebec films and the selection of Quebec films at most of the top international film festivals. Robichaud had been at Cannes before, in 2012, with her short film, Chef de meute, but she's quick to underline that it's a whole different experience to go there with a feature.

Sarah pr?f?re la course stars Sophie Desmarais as a young woman who lives for just one thing - competitive running. Her mother, Isabelle (H?l?ne Florent), is not particularly supportive of her daughter's passion, for reasons that only become clear much later in the film. Sarah decides to leave the 'burbs of Quebec City to head for Montreal to train as part of the McGill athletic club because she feels it's one of the best places in the province for runners.

But she isn't sure how she's going to finance the move. That's when her pal, Antoine (Jean-S?bastien Courchesne), steps in. Antoine, who also wants to move to Montreal, suggests they marry just so they can nab better loans and bursaries from the government. So they do ... and, of course, things don't quite work out as planned.

"I wanted to make the opposite of the classic sports movie," Robichaud said. "I was much more interested in the psychology of the athlete rather than the sport itself. I didn't want to show Sarah winning medals, accompanied by big dramatic music. I really wanted to show what she was living as an athlete and as a young woman."

Though it did receive a good reaction at its screenings in Cannes, the first reviews from the fest were mixed, and a number of critics were put off by the main's character's introverted personality.

Jordan Mintzer wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that "Sarah remains a fairly obtuse character, bottling up her feelings and opinions until they literally make her sick."

Robichaud knows her lead character isn't the easiest person to relate to on first glance. "I knew it was a risk, but I thought it was important to propose a character like this," said Robichaud. "Because we don't often see female characters like her, and there are women like her in real life. Just like there are men like Antoine in real life. So they deserve to be seen on the big screen. For sure, it's a challenge. The introverted personality of Sarah might not appeal to everyone, but it's also her strength, that's why people will be touched."

I suggest to Robichaud that Sarah is not the happiest of campers.

"Well she's not unhappy either," Robichaud countered. "She's searching. She's going to have choices to make, about financial things, social things, family, love, sex. Just like so many young people who have difficult decisions to make. She's just not at ease in social situations. But I find her charming, and I hope others do, too. But that's out of my control."

Sarah pr?f?re la course opens Friday.

bkelly@montrealgazette.com

twitter: brendanshowbiz

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Expectation+running+high/8468977/story.html

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