It’s about time

Louis Bélanger on his superb period
piece The Timekeeper

CLOCK ROCKER: Craig Olejnik

By MATTHEW HAYS

In the past few years, Quebec cinema has become rife with sentimental, melancholic glimpses into adolescent pasts. Blame Claude Jutra, perhaps, as he made the definitive Quebec coming-of-age movie, Mon Oncle Antoine. While these films have their place, audiences (and critics) could be forgiven for growing a bit fatigued by the overload.

Those looking for a different experience would do well to see The Timekeeper, the new feature from Louis Bélanger (Gaz Bar Blues). Based on the acclaimed novel by Montreal author Trevor Ferguson, the feature shows us the rough life of those working in a railroad camp in the ’60s.

True to Ferguson’s source material, there’s nothing remotely sentimental about this film. The six-million dollar feature shows us the gruelling conditions the workers are forced to contend with and the dark side of human power struggles. Craig Olejnik plays a naïve young man who shows up to be the timekeeper, essentially punching the clock for the entire team of workers. He soon learns the hard way that the rulebook is something those workers intend to shred.

It’s a great film, and is somewhat genre-defiant, being both an adventure story and a suspense movie at the same time. “The technicians I was working with said the film had an American feel but with many European touches,” reports Bélanger. “I was happy to hear that. I really wanted to avoid formula. Some people might not get into it, but I really always want to avoid the same old recipe.”

Bélanger has also managed a coup, assembling what is arguably the best Canadian acting ensemble in a decade. Stephen McHattie, Gary Farmer and the ubiquitous Roy Dupuis all appear in key roles. Bélanger says there’s a rich talent pool to draw from in Canadian acting circles, but among young actors he sees a disturbing trend. “Many of the young actors now, they’re brought through the television system. They are often acting and also modeling. I get along very well with Bruce McDonald [director of Hard Core Logo and Pontypool], so I asked him to give me some names. He had directed a number of Degrassi episodes, so I looked at some of those tapes.

“But the young actors really only seem to want to look good, to charm the camera. I wanted a shy guy who’s coming from a rural area. All the kids from Toronto, I wouldn’t say they were destroyed by television, but they were formed by it. They’re posing. With a lot of work you could do something, but you’d have to break them out of their habits first.”

This summer will provide a lot of stimulation for Bélanger—he begins shooting his next feature, a Denise Robert-produced road movie he co-wrote with Alexis Martin, while his theatre directing debut, Mort de peine, premieres at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous on August 24.

“I felt so much liberty doing theatre. You don’t have any pressure about box office or how much it costs. Let’s face it: people are in the film business for different reasons. Some people want to print money through the cinema. Some of us are trying to make art. In Quebec, we’ve gone a bit crazy over box office. I don’t think that’s the only reason we should make films.”

THE TIMEKEEPER OPENS
FRIDAY, AUG. 21