Noisemakers 2000: Chicken man

>> Jean Francois Monette creates a bizarre love story with Take Out

by MATTHEW HAYS

It's a pretty standard fantasy, one that's often played out in porn. That cute delivery boy turns out to want to make an entirely different kind of delivery.

But for Montreal filmmaker Jean Francois Monette, the narrative took on a deeper and more intricate dimension in the hands of Toronto author Derek Brown. His short story, titled "Swiss Chalet," was published in a literary edition of This Magazine in 1997. Monette was intrigued when he read the story, and immediately phoned Brown to ask if anyone had proposed turning the tale into a film. A deal was promptly struck.

Backed by piecemeal funding from the Canada Council, Quebec Council and SODEC, Monette managed a $160,000 budget for the production, which wrapped in December. Monette worked with Toronto scribe Nancy Hughes to polish the story into screenplay form.

Then Monette managed a casting coup, nabbing Daniel MacIvor (The Five Senses, Uncut, Twitch City) for one of the film's central roles. "It's a real actor's story," explains Monette, "because in a sense, nothing really happens. It's about a 16 year old who delivers chicken and discovers that he might be gay." Thus MacIvor, one of Canada's busiest actors, having worked with every major director in the country, was eager to sink his teeth into the project. MacIvor plays the lonely suburbanite who's just broken up with his lover, and strikes up a bond with the delivery boy. Monette describes MacIvor as "a wonder to work with--he brought a great deal to the set and was very generous."

Monette, who has changed the title from Swiss Chalet to Take Out to avoid offending the chicken chain, says the film marks a turning point for him as a filmmaker. "This is my first foray into a straightforward narrative style." In 1996, Monette and Peter Tyler Boullata cowrote and directed Anatomy of Desire, a documentary about scientific theories surrounding sexual orientation. Two years ago, Monette delivered his poignant experimental riff on coming out, Where Lies the Homo?--which doubled as his thesis project for his Masters in film production at Concordia University.

"It's definitely a shift for me. Take Out feels more straightforward. But come to think of it, it won't be that straightforward." l