Films du Québec

The Rainbow boys est une comédie dramatique québéco-canadienne réalisée par Gerald Potterton, réalisateur, producteur et animateur né à Londres en 1931.

Étant un amateur des films du comédien Donald Pleasence, j’ai eu la chance il y a de nombreuses années de voir ce film assez rare, sur une vieille VHS anglaise au son désastreux. Sans être incontournable, The Rainbow boys a gardé un charme suranné et l’histoire d’amitié entre trois paumés en marge du système est assez sympathique. Le film avait remporté le Best Foreign Feature au Atlanta Film Festival.

Autres titres anglais: Logan ; The Rainbow Gang – Titre français : Au bout de l’arc-en-ciel

Tournage du film The Rainbow Boys en Colombie Britannique

A few years ago, while shooting a documentary in British Columbia, Potterton was quite taken by the beauty of the rugged B.C. terrain and hoped that he might, in the future, make a film about an old gold miner living in this beautiful, isolated setting. Having little writing experience, he employed three or four writers over the course of as many years in order to develop his basic idea. But the scripts were far from his liking, with a consistent emphasis on hippies, draft-dodgers and dope. Potterton had no intention of becoming involved in that sort of film – a type of film he felt would soon be « passé » and far too reminiscent of the Easy Rider school of film-making. Potterton explained his decision to write the script, himself:

« Finally, I sort of moped around the office and someone said, ‘Look. Either write the thing or…’ And I said, ‘Well, if we’re going to get it in to the CFDC this year…’ That was last year and there were just five or six weeks left in order to have the film shot that summer. Otherwise I was going to forget about it. But it was a thing I wanted to do because I was fascinated by the country out there. And Donald Pleasence was very hot on the thing – he helped me a lot. Someone said, ‘Why don’t you just write the script yourself?’ So I just closed the door, sat down, wrote it and got good reactions about it. It’s a very simple script with a very thin plot. We got it in just under the wire and the CFDC approved it. We got the rest of the financing, and then went out and shot it. Even if it submerges forever, I’m pleased that we did it. »

Extrait d’un article non daté rédigé par Laurinda Hartt pour la revue Cinema Canada)