Quebec
2001 99 mins
OV French
"Stéphane Brousseau, 27, is a compulsive gambler. Faced with an ultimatum from the bank, which is about to seize the pig farm she inherited from her father, she tries to make a quick buck by selling a crop of pot that two city criminals are growing on her land." (from the original press kit) Behind this seemingly simple framework, the film boasts a complex script with a thousand twists and turns, and inventive direction from the late director Érik Canuel, who some already saw as our Quentin Tarantino. Canuel was born to excel in his field, a man of many talents and extraordinary energy. He first came to prominence with music videos, advertising, and TV series, before finally diving headfirst into genre cinema. Canuel was a man of all genres: comedy, action, historical, romance, suspens,e and filmed theatre. – Translation: Rupert Bottenberg
Érik Canuel: "Of all my films, LA LOI DU COCHON remains my favourite. The best conceived or made was LE DERNIER TUNNEL. My most stylish would be CADAVRES, based on the novel by François Barcelo. I have a huge affection for BARRYMORE, which in many ways is about my father and his relationship with theatre and acting. But my favourite is LA LOI DU COCHON. I shot the film in 2001 on MiniDV. The production was designed specifically around this medium. The budget didn't allow for anything else and I wanted to shoot this concrete scenario at all costs. Technology has come a long way since then. It's a medium that had a lot of advantages for us at the time. Personally, I preferred to work with 35mm film. In the end, it's not the medium that counts, but the story, the talent of the actors, and the team chosen to tell it that make the difference. Joanne Arseneau's script was absolutely incredible. And I have a lot of affection for my first actors with whom I worked again, including Sylvain Marcel, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Catherine Trudeau, Marie Brassard and Christian Bégin.”