In the year 2020, what does a moviegoer need most from a film? Perhaps a vulnerable female lead character, breaking free from the chains of a sexist partner while screaming “Go f–k yourself!” Like us, she’s been isolated from society for a long time, a small dot on the map in rural Quebec. Most importantly, we require a healthy amount of dark humor, to remind us that in the end, this tough time we’ve been living in might make for a laugh or two in retrospect.
This week’s Staff Pick Premiere, “I’ll End Up In Jail,” is a black dramedy the curation team saw and fell in love with at Sundance Film Festival in January. We were big fans after seeing it at the start of the year, so much so that we gave it our unofficial jury award for International Fiction. Little did we know how a brilliant narrative that feels like the lovechild of “Fargo” and “Thelma and Louise” would bring a special kind of twisted entertainment after kind of year the world has had.
Director and writer Alexandre Dostie answered a few questions we had about this film ahead of its exclusive release on Vimeo. Read on for excerpts from our chat about inspiration, artistic influences, and the slew of real-life car crashes that occurred during the making of the film:
On inspiration:
“There was this crazy story that happened to my friend’s aunt. She had to drive this huge American pickup truck from her husband’s garage to the inspection office. The thing is that the truck’s speedometer was in miles/hour contrary to the km/hour that we’re used to in Canada. She never noticed, even though she drove that beast way past the speed limit. She realized what had happened when she got to destinations in half the time. In my mind, I couldn’t help but to think about this small-framed lady unconsciously getting off on the danger, the power, and the exhilaration of speed. This image was seminal to the project.
The thing is that the story felt pretty anecdotal to me and I had a hard time connecting on a soul level with the character. Something had to happen on the road while my character was speeding and tasting this unknown freedom. And I had to find out who this woman was to me. Soon enough, I remembered being struck in the back of a car with my sisters when I was a kid. This car was speeding on a dirt road and my mother was driving. She was a young and distressed woman, afraid she hadn’t made the right life choices. She feared being indefinitely stuck in the middle of nowhere with her freedom forever gone. This feeling of wanting to break free no matter what, no matter how imprudent or impulsive, became the fuel for “I’ll End Up in Jail.” Out of my mother’s experience, a character was born. Her name was Maureen.
From there, many other inspiration sources came into play like André Guitar’s murder ballad, “Je finirai en prison,” where the title came from. Finally, I stumbled on Flannery O’Connor’s literary work and it blew me away! The grotesqueness, the comedy in life’s tragedies, the strange morality, the brutal American South that I could easily translate to the rural region where I grew up… I related to all of it. It was like finding some kind of an artistic soul mate through space and time. It’s a very special feeling! To honour that serendipity, I coined my film a “Northern Gothic” piece in reference to the Southern Gothic literary movement Flannery was a part of. Plus, it sounds badass!”
On the significance of location:
“I wanted to shoot in a rural region where I grew up in Quebec called La Beauce, which is like our Texas. I knew the harsh landscape there would be perfect for the story I wanted to tell. We started scouting a whole year before shooting the film. To find the location where Maureen would crash, we drove 800 km of secondary and dirt roads. I was highlighting our progress on a map and grew desperate when we couldn’t find the perfect spot. People in the region were like: “Looking for a hilly road? No stress they’re all over!” but none matched the precise vision I had in my mind. In the end, we found it less than 10 km from the house where I grew up! It was exhilarating! I went back with DOP Vincent Biron and I could tell him the whole story and shots walking on the road we found, crossing to the prairie and down in the forest. It was magical! The same heartfelt process occurred for every other location in the film, including the fire watch at the end which I saw in a dream. I tried to find it for months until I realized it was my own uncle’s hunting cabin.”
On the film’s artistic influences:
“I’ve always been a Cohen admirer, especially because of the way they develop the characters in their films: always on the verge of the burlesque, but still incredibly complex and truthful. I’m also attracted by their stories where existential dramas meet the comedy of life itself. To me it feels very close to the reality I experience and that’s how I like to tell my own stories.
Strangely though, since “I’ll End Up in Jail” was supposed to be shot on a autumn background, “Fargo” was not a main source of inspiration for the film. Actually, “No Country for Old Men” was much more instrumental in nailing the neo-western vibe and the artistic style of my film. Bong Joon Ho’s “Mother” was another artistic inspiration, especially to help me figure out the evolution of Maureen and imagine a story where the moral guidelines are blurred up into the lead’s point of view. Oh, and I have to admit there might be a pinch of “Thelma & Louise” in there. I like to imagine Maureen watching that film and thinking she’s their cosmic sister.”
On challenges faced:
“The film was shot over 8 days in mid-November of 2018, close to the Appalachian in the rural region of La Beauce in Quebec. What was set to be a late fall piece turns out to be a full on winter scenery 3 days before shooting. Temperature went as low as -26 degrees Celsius and more than 3 feet of snow accumulated on the ground. Last-minute changes had to be made to costumes and gear to prevent actors and crew from freezing. Locals claimed that it was the snowiest and coldest month of November recorded in the past 35 years.
Maureen’s huge pickup truck wasn’t ready for the harsh condition of winter. As a consequence, the water that was in the diesel tank froze and the truck couldn’t operate for more than a minute at the time. My father, who owned a garage for several years in the region, was called in for reinforcement to get the truck in working order. He stayed on set for most of the shooting.
Maureen’s disastrous car crash wasn’t the only one to happen during the shooting of this film. Assistant director’s car rolled over in a snow-covered ditch. Crew minivan went off-road and ditched while shooting. Electro’s truck got bogged down in the middle of the woods and had to be pulled out by a bulldozer. And producer Hany Ouichou’s car was totaled by a crew member when the car slipped on a patch of ice and crashed into the back of a truck. Fortunately, nobody was injured and any drama was preserved for the movie.
Because of all that and the fact that days are pretty short here in November, I had an average of 4 takes per shot. All of them counted! However, I was blessed with incredible actors and a crew of warriors. Working through harsh conditions just shows what we’re all made of.”
What’s next? Any upcoming projects?
“I’m working on my feature’s first draft. The project is titled “SHAPE” and from the look of it, the film should be another piece of Northern Gothic cinema. Hahaha! I want to shoot it in La Beauce like my other shorts, but it will have a strong US influence. Let’s put it like that. There is also a new poetry collection I wrote that will be published next spring. I’m pretty stoked about it! I hope the pandemic will be tamed by then so I can do some readings of that stuff. There are some more biscuits in the oven, but I’ll save those for another time.”
