Quebec’s Eastern Townships have a nice little history of filmmaking. Today, with Amazon getting involved, maybe it will get a second wind.
Amazon Prime will soon produce a new series based on Brome Lake author Louise Penny’s detective Gamache mysteries, set in fictional Three Pines. Maybe this will stimulate filmmaking in the Townships, which has been largely dormant since a big bump back in 2003-2004.
At that time, scenic North Hatley was the focus of several film productions, notably a witty low-budget teen comedy, Hatley High, and a big mystery thriller starring Johnny Depp – Secret Window. The two films were polar opposites.
Secret Window was a $40-million U.S. production with bankable stars, including John Turturro. Made in the fall of 2003, it used the J.B. LeBaron general store in North Hatley as the setting for a restaurant in the movie, but other scenes were shot in New York City. Depp left good memories with the Townships public, as townsfolk recall him being unfailingly polite and unpretentious.
Local street signs
Filming locations also included Bromont, but it never identified Townships places as such. One film reviewer on the influential IMDb (Internet Movie Database) site said simply that the Depp character “lives in a cottage near a lake”.
By contrast, Hatley High (2004) delivers a peppy, rock-themed, high-school story with a bang. And this Canadian teen movie is visibly set in North Hatley and the Townships — even if the Hatley High School of the title never existed. Director Phil Price deftly cut in scenes shot in Hudson, Quebec and in the NDG neighbourhood of Montreal, with outdoor scenes and street signs shot in North Hatley itself.
The film remains an intriguing venture. Shot with a budget of just $300,000 Cdn., the film’s own trailer mocks its low-budget corner-cutting. The theatre audience was minimal, but it won several awards at the US Comedy Arts Festival in 2005, including for best director and best screenplay.
Today, Hatley High is practically unfindable, with exactly one DVD available recently on Amazon. But it’s always available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yAlVMPNem
Crazy college
It’s a teen comedy with a twist: there are jocks and nerds and lots of cheerleaders at this high school, of course, but no competitive basketball or football teams. The really hot sport is … chess. The students’ jockeying for status and attention focuses on the school’s ultra-competitive chess team, The Knights. The gym is loudly packed for a big tournament against a devious-looking Russian team. (The French title is simply Hatley, while a Russian-language version of the film, Bezymni Kolledzh, translates roughly as Crazy College.) All eyes are on the new kid at school, Tommy (played by Nicolas Wright), to save their championship dreams.
What did the world film public think of all this?
At IMDb.com, as elsewhere on the Web, many reviewers loved it: “[this] low-budget Canadian movie has proved to be a quirky little gem … We laughed all the way through this movie (Canadians might have a strange sense of humour though – I am not sure). … it’s a satire of other movies (typical high school sports movies or new kid in town movies) but it is not just full of superficial jokes – it has more depth to it because of the real issues that it addresses. Mostly, though, it is just very funny.”
No football gods
Another critic added, “it comes off as a play on the typical American ‘worship the football gods’ type movie. … The main character, Tommy, did a good job of coming across as a complicated young man who has the initial idea of who he is, but still has rough edges to work on”. And yes, by storming the chess tournament, he gets the girl.
Concludes one IMDb reviewer: “it’s a good movie with some chuckles along the way. I am so glad that I stumbled upon it.”
Maybe it’s time Townshippers encouraged their filmmakers, too. A business worth more than just a few laughs.
First published in the Sherbrooke Record.
