The plot turns when Luc travels to Toronto for architectural jury duty and hooks up with Lindsay (Melanie Merkosky), a woman more sophisticated than Stephanie in looks and behaviour. This may or not be what leads him to respond to the married woman’s frank invitation to her bedroom. As the mainly long-distance affair heats up, Luc and Stephanie’s lives get rattled by madness and disease although the mise-en-scène never stops being eye-catching.
At the press conference, Arcand also fielded questions about his vaunted cynicism (a word he finds meaningless), his cinematic treatment of illness (he dislikes pictures that get clinical about the subject), and inevitably, the new film’s copious English-language dialogue (the Canadian reality, he said).
As for why he thought Luc should be an architect, Arcand said that he realized “architects were really close to filmmakers.” Both professions involve “working with a team and dealing with all sorts of difficulties” from weather to clients, which moviemakers call producers and distributors. Both jobs are “artistic, and also practical.”
Working with a team, Arcand concluded, is the aspect of filmmaking that gives him “great happiness.” He collaborates exclusively with friends or people who “I would have dinner with” and become friends.
