Falcon Lake
Charlotte Le Bon cuts her directorial teeth with an individual and deeply sensitive look at the approach of adolescence.
Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit
Charlotte Le Bon is a French-Canadian actress who gives us in Falcon Lake her first feature film as a director. For her material she has turned to a graphic novel by Bastien Vives entitled Une sœur, but this is a work that gives no hint of having such a source. Instead, working in collaboration with François Choquet, Le Bon has supplied a screenplay which, set in Quebec, captures the world of young teenagers most persuasively and naturalistically. Indeed, she has acknowledged that she could not have created Falcon Lake as a film but for her own experiences when growing up.
Although the two central characters, Bastien (Joseph Engel) and Chloé (Sara Montpetit), can both be categorised as being in their early teens, it is in fact highly significant that young Bastien is only thirteen (but eager to declare that he is almost fourteen) and that Chloé is sixteen. They find themselves sharing a room along with Bastien’s young brother Titi (Thomas Laperrière) when Bastien’s parents drive into the country with their children to visit Louise (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman). Louise is Chloé's mother and also the best friend of Bastien’s mother, Violette (Monia Chokri).
Initially Chloé may be put out by their arrival and by not having a room to herself, but for Bastien his age makes it unsurprising that his proximity to Chloé should lead to first love. That age difference means that Chloé has already broken off from one boyfriend and is soon being pursued by another, Oliver (Anthony Therrien). But, while Chloé likes to go partying, she hopes to conceal the fact that she is not wholly at ease in the company of these older teenagers. In the event Chloé, less experienced than she seems, comes to find a natural rapport with Bastien, but it happens at a time when Bastien is seeking acceptance by Chloé’s friends and that influences how things work out.
Falcon Lake is unusual in the way that it makes Bastien and Chloé the focal figures to the extent of placing the other characters in the background. This pays off for two reasons, one being that both Engel and Montpetit give very effective performances and work together well. But, no less importantly, Le Bon has chosen to make Bastien and Chloe equally important: both in the writing and in the playing they are presented with the same conviction and depth and neither counts for more than the other.
It could, however, be argued that this study of adolescence is less than wholly suited to being a full-length feature film (had it been a standard literary work, it could have made for a very effective short story). I feel too that the conclusion is less than fully effective regardless of the fact that Le Bon has earlier played around with the idea of referencing horror films in a way that may colour your expectation of where the film might go. The lake that is featured may indeed be at the scene of a death, the dark forest nearby may carry suggestions of sinister fairytales and the room shared by the youngsters does indeed have a poster of Psycho on the wall. Nevertheless, this unusual aspect is not overdone (anyone approaching Falcon Lake expecting a horror film will be vastly disappointed) and it works best if one considers this as a means of representing the underlying, if only half acknowledged, fear that young teenagers can experience when they are on the cusp of more adult life but hardly ready to handle its complexities. Indeed, it is the film’s rounded, sensitive portrait of its two leading figures seen in an individual but revealing light that makes this film such a promising debut for Charlotte Le Bon regardless of any shortcomings.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Thomas Laperrière, Lévi Doré, Jeff Roop, Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, Éléonore Loiselle, Samir Filouz.
Dir Charlotte Le Bon, Pro Sylvain Corbeil, Julien Deris, David Gauquié, Nancy Grant and others, Screenplay Charlotte Le Bon with François Choquet, from the graphic novel Une Soeur by Bastien Vives, Ph Kristof Brandl, Pro Des Alex Hercule Desjardins, Ed Julie Léna, Music Shida Shahabi, Costumes Gabrielle Lauzier.
Cinéfrance Studios/Metafilms/Onze Cinq/Canal+/ Ciné+/Téléfilm Canada-Signature Entertainment.
100 mins. France/Canada. 2022. UK Rel: 15 May 2023. Available on digital platforms. Cert. 15.
