Trained in philosophy, Russian studies and cinema, Marc Bisaillon, in parallel with his career as singer and producer for the underground band Les 3/4 Putains, has worked, among other things, as a boom operator, soundman, film distributor at Cinéma Libre and as a casket carrier for funerals.
Before going into film directing with the short films SPCE (2002), Y’en n’a pas comme nous! (2004) and One take one shot - Une prise une gorgée (2007), Marc wrote the script for Les Immortels (2003), Paul Thinel’s first feature. Marc also held leading roles in Claude Fortin’s three feature films.
Inspired by actual events, Marc began writing and directing in 2006 his tetralogy on the guilty conscience with his first feature la lâcheté (cowardice). The second film, la vérité (guilt), will be released in March 2011.
He is currently writing the two other films (love and justice). He is also recording songs for Menu Fretin, the second album by his new band, Léopold Z, whose name is inspired by the famous film by Gilles Carle.
A series on the guilty conscience?
I didn’t get up one morning telling myself I was going to make a series of films on the theme of the guilty conscience, it happened quite naturally. Someone had to tell me to make me realize it, otherwise, quite frankly, I thought I was simply working on scripts based on true stories that touched and troubled me. Initially, there was talk of a trilogy, then a new project was added (tetralogy?), and now I’m thinking about a black comedy to close the series ... I think it is better to speak of a cycle. Do we know where this will end? After or... before?
Silence as the cement of criminality?
Not so long ago in Quebec, everything was hidden behind “Hush! We don’t talk about that!” And it is with these silences that I grew up. I guess my obsession stems from there. What is the guilty conscience if this painful desire to speak?
My first film, La Lâcheté (Cowardice) explored the consequences of the silence of a witness to a crime.
La Vérité (Guilt) addresses the effects of silence on the guilty.
The script for L’Amour (Love), inspired by the true story of Stephen Marshall that shook Nova Scotia in 2006, and on which I'm working right now, reports the consequences of silence on the victim.
My police thriller project, La Justice (Justice), inspired by a vicious murder that occurred in the 80's, will look at the silence of the facts and the powerlessness of the law.
Finally, La Politesse (Politeness), a black comedy that I aspire to freely adapt from the novella Le bonheur dans le crime by Barbey D’Aurevilly, will focus on the silence of the conscience, which in this case is far from feeling guilty.
