Seduction that looks beyond love

The art of seduction is not dead. Nor is it limited to the exotic likes of Casanova or Mata Hari, carried out with plumes of smoke and vials of perfume. We all practice this art, says French Canadian director Jean-Francois Pouliot, and not just for sexual gratification. We seduce others so they will love us and do our bidding. We do so by styling our hair and dressing up, by displaying our charming side and by finding ways to engage the heart and mind of the other. Sometimes we might even tell a white lie or two, and some- times we might even cross the line, as deception slips into treachery.

Pouliot knows the territory of seduction well. Last year, his first feature, “Seducing Doctor Lewis,” was the top-grossing film in French Canada, outperforming, among others, “Lord of the Rings,” “The Matrix Reloaded” and even the region’s own critical darling, “The Barbarian Invasions.”

“Seducing” is a fable set in the sleepy little Quebec village Ste-Marie-La-Mauderne. It is perched on a remote island where the fishing industry is dead, and dispirited men spend their time lining up for unemployment checks and drinking at the local bar. Germain (Raymond Bouchard) won’t take this slide into oblivion lying down, especially when his wife threatens to leave to take a job elsewhere. Salvation for Ste-Marie-La-Mauderne, he believes, lies in getting a factory built. The company that could do this has but one stipulation: The town must have a full-time doctor.

When a city doctor, Christopher Lewis (David Boutin), shows up for a one-month gig, Germain decides to corral the townsfolk into, well, seducing him. They spiff up the grounds, eavesdrop on his phone conversations, devise ways to make him feel lucky to be there, and pretend to play his favorite game, cricket, though they haven’t a clue what the rules to this arcane activity are.

A well-known commercial director based in Montreal, Pouliot had long wanted to make a feature film. He had simply never found material to which he was willing to devote a year of his life, the time he figured it would take. (He has since discovered that the work extends from two to three years, as the film is released in different regions at different times.) “Seducing” was written by actor Ken Scott, whose co-star on the sitcom “Le Plateau” was Benoit Briere. Briere was familiar with Pouliot from starring in his popular series of Bell Canada commercials and thought the script would resonate with the director.

“When I read the script,” Pouliot recalls during a visit to Los Angeles, “I was already jealous at the thought that someone else might make the film.” A trim, boyish-looking man with graying hair, Pouliot, 46, brims with unbounded enthusiasm, especially as he describes how he fell in love with the script. His eyes glow as he remembers first love.

“It had strong characters,” he says. “It used comedy in a way that I love, that is, comedy as a different way of telling a story. Of course, the narrative is really key, whether in a drama or a comedy. There was also this theme of truth and lies.”

Scott, who does a cameo as the villager with the ugly house, wanted to write about seduction but not just in terms of romantic love. “It seems to me that we’re trying to seduce people around us all the time. It’s very, very subtle. There’s a thin line between seducing and putting up a facade,” Scott says by telephone. “I also wanted to write about a small community that wants to achieve something big with little means. It’s a great starting point for a drama and a comedy.”

Making adjustments

Pouliot worked with Scott to hone the script, and he made up backstories for all the characters, just as he does for his commercials. For example, he imagined that Christopher is vulnerable to the villagers’ ploys because he grew up moving from place to place and is looking for roots -- maybe St-Marie-La Mauderne is his answer. The potential love interest Eve (Lucie Laurier) is someone who was from the village but went to the city, Pouliot reasons. “She was hurt there and came back,” he says. “Like Christopher, maybe she’s searching for her roots.”

The director read the script in spring 2002, casting and location scouting followed shortly thereafter, and shooting began that fall. (Briere plays a key role in the film, that of bank manager Henri Giroux.) At first, they thought they wouldn’t have enough money to shoot on location, but after Pouliot saw the picturesque town of Harrington Harbour, he decided on a four-week shoot there. The real town was relatively affluent, so the film crew had to make the town look shabbier to assume the movie role. They also had to build the restaurant-bar where the locals gather right off the dock area. (The real one was too far inland.)

To achieve necessary aerial shots, Pouliot rented a helicopter for half a day. One called for a long shot of a cricket match set up to impress Dr. Lewis. However, because of a technicality, the camera could be mounted only on the right side of the helicopter, which meant that the shot only could be taken moving in the opposite direction in which Dr. Lewis’ boat was traveling.

Meanwhile, the sun was going down, and Pouliot didn’t have much time to sort out the glitch. “In advertising, you’re always shoot things which are unreal,” he says. “It’s almost your daily job. So when this happened, I said to myself, ‘This is like advertising, you have 10 minutes to find the solution.’ ” And he did.

They would shoot the scene from the helicopter moving in the wrong direction, then correct it later by running the film in reverse. And in order for this to work, he had to instruct his actors to run backward.

The happy ending of his film might seem predictable, but Pouliot has another view: “When you get a story of boy meets girl, you know in the end the boy will fall in love with the girl,” he says. “What you want to be surprised by is how it happens.”