Simon
Boisvert might be the world’s most misunderstood unknown filmmaker. Through
sheer gumption, he produced six independent features, but he is keenly aware of
their various flaws. Viewers might be unfamiliar with his films, but they will
come to fully understand them all when the Quebecois filmmaker turns the camera
on himself in Bold & Brash:
Filmmaking Boisvert Style, which screened during the 2014 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Boisvert
may have been tragically influenced by Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men. For some reason the Aaron Eckhart character
struck such a chord, he inspired the protagonist of Boisvert’s debut, Stephanie, Nathalie, Caroline & Vincent.
To save money, Boisvert played Vincent himself, but he readily acknowledges the
limitations of his acting chops. Nonetheless, the film garnered a bit of
notice, even though it released on VHS on September 11, 2001.
For
at least one commentator, Boisvert is a French Canadian Ed Wood, but the
comparison is rather unfair. He sort of has his critical champions, who can
find worthiness in some, if not all of his films. Arguably, his talky,
relationship-driven films are not so very different aesthetically from the work
of Henry Jaglom (is that a heresy to suggest?). However, Boisvert has had more
than his share of bad luck, including uncooperative crews and sound mixing
disasters.
While
Boisvert’s candidness is often surprising, his tenacity is equally impressive.
Despite his frustrations, he has gotten his films distributed in some form,
except for Barmaids, which he was forced
to shelve for purely technical reasons. Aspiring filmmakers should draw some
real business lessons from his experiences.
Ironically,
Bold & Brash looks considerably
more polished than many of the films it surveys. Were it not for the raggedness
of many of the illustrating film clips, it could pass for a more conventional documentary
on indie filmmaking. At times, Boisvert argues sometimes budget constraints
really are too severe, as when he produced the concert scenes in the rock &
roll melodrama Venus de Milo with
less than twenty extras. Still, his resiliency is impressive.
