MONTREAL - The biggest talking point surrounding the new Quebec Mafia
movie Omertà is the presence of René Angélil in one of the starring
roles.
Angélil is, of course, Mr. Céline Dion. He is married to
Canada’s most famous songbird, manages Dion’s absurdly successful
career, and is a vedette in his own right in Quebec. He is often
interviewed on TV, graces the covers of the local entertainment
magazines and was even a mentor in the last two seasons of the
ultra-popular TV singing contest Star Académie.
In short, it was a
big deal for producer Denise Robert and writer-director Luc Dionne to
snare Angélil for the role of Mob boss Dominic Fagazi in their
adaptation of the gritty cops-and-mobsters series that ran on
Radio-Canada between 1996 and 1999. The film, which opens across the
province Wednesday, also stars Michel Côté (who was the main man in the
TV series), Patrick Huard, Rachelle Lefevre and Stéphane Rousseau.
Côté reprises his role as Pierre Gauthier – the police officer, not
the much-maligned former Habs general manager – who has left the Sûreté
du Québec to head up a private security agency. But he’s pulled back
into the cop biz to investigate the goings-on within the Montreal Mafia.
Rousseau plays a psycho criminal who got out of jail early and is part
of a complex plan to produce a large shipment of phony gold bars.
While
the movie features a star-studded cast, it’s the hiring of Angélil that
has generated the most buzz. The impresario’s role in Omertà has also
sparked some debate about whether it’s really such a good idea to have a
well-known entertainment personality who’s not an actor playing a major
part in a film.
Writer-director Dionne, a tough-talking guy at
the best of times, was a little peeved when I asked him about this
debate. I told him that the argument from the critics of the movie –
notably La Presse film columnist Marc-André Lussier – is that you can’t
ever get over the notion that you’re watching René Angélil rather than a
character in the movie.
“Can you get over the fact that it’s Tom
Cruise?” asked Dionne, who wrote the Omertà TV series. “Can you get over
the fact that it’s Robert De Niro? I’m going to get criticism about
everything. That’s part of my job. That’s part of the business. But I
don’t write movies for these (critics). I write movies first of all for
myself. I write stories that I would like to see. I hope people are
going to say something else about the movie (other than the fact it
stars Angélil).
“There’s something that you cannot play in a
movie, and that’s power. Power – either you have it or you don’t. You
can’t force people to respect you. You either have it or you don’t. And
that’s what René is all about.”
Hiring Angélil was producer Robert’s idea. When she suggested it to
Dionne, his first thought was that Angélil would never accept the gig.
He knew Angélil: They’re both poker players and have played in the same
tournaments, and Dionne has golfed at the Angélil-owned course Le Mirage
in Terrebonne.
So the director and producer headed down to Florida to try to convince Angélil, and found a surprise ally in Céline Dion.
“What
happened was that they convinced Céline first,” said Angélil. “They
said, ‘He’s perfect for the role. We need someone who can command
respect. Not talk a lot.’ When I came in, I had the three of them
telling me it would be a good thing. Then Céline gave me the punchline
when she said: ‘You know, you’ve done a lot of things in this business.
You’ve been a singer, a member of a group (the ’60s yé-yé band Les
Baronets), a producer, a director, a manager, and you’re not getting
younger. This is probably your last chance to be in a movie. And you’re
with great people, so you should do that.’
If there were scenes where I had to be violent and kill people, then it
would be another story. But as you saw, he’s sort of a nice Godfather.
There’s violence in the movie, but not from me. I have other people
doing the violence.”- Rene Angelil
Omertà opens in Quebec theatres on Wednesday July 11, 2012.
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