It’s no surprise to learn that Louis Godbout once made his living as a professor of philosophy – and not after carefully watching his new film, Parking placePlaying with the mind.
The film takes a seemingly ordinary event—an argument over a parking space in a suburb of Montreal—and turns it into a psychological war between its central characters and an existential crisis within each of them.
Godbout clearly delights in life’s many uncertainties, and has found film to be the perfect vehicle to explore them.
“Philosophy is an exercise in realizing that what seems simple and unproblematic in everyday life is actually not so; that most things become problematic as soon as you scratch the surface a little,” the Canadian director explains. “Philosophers thrive on problems, ambiguity, and uncertainty, and I love films that do that, too.”
So Parking place (Primatice Films) intentionally leaves some questions – and even the nature of certain characters – wide open to interpretation. This ambiguity is a large part of the reason why, since its world premiere in the main Gold Cup competition of the Shanghai International Film Festival, the film has become the talk of the festival. Festival-goers were heard in deep debate about its many merits – and about what they had (or had not) just witnessed.
On paper, it sounds straightforward, even a bit like the setting of a hit Netflix movie meat. but Parking place It takes a much more sinister turn than that series ever did.
A couple (Maxime Gaudet and Christine Beaulieu) are on their way to dinner when they get into a battle of wills with a stranger (Benoît Gouin) over a parking spot. Already tensions are rising between the pair, and a confrontation slowly boils over – but there are also tantalizing flashes of dialogue, and the odd pointed look, that suggest the stranger may know more about the couple than he’s first letting on. And what exactly is he whispering in that policeman’s ear?
To say more would spoil the fun. But a flash of delight crossed Godbout’s face when he was told, at a press event for the film, that the Shanghai audience had been divided by what they had seen — in the best way possible.
“The film is a meditation on the fate and sometimes hidden significance of insignificant events, the civility that makes our relationships smooth and easy, and beneath that superficial civility, there are much more brutal forces at play,” he said. “If you do not manage relationships properly with politeness and respect, and once pride, sense of self-worth gets involved, relationships can become very complicated.”
The main challenge in making Parking placeThe director said he was deciding how much to reveal about the characters and what actually happens to them — and how much to leave open to interpretation.
“Which [challenge] “I started writing,” Godbout says, “how much am I going to reveal and where do I draw the line — because you want as many people as possible to understand the movie.” While editing, I wanted to calibrate the amount of information I wanted to present at each stage of the film.
Exactly where this turning point lies, he does not allow it.
“I’m not going to tell you now where, for me, people understand or feel the film. There’s a point in the film where I wish that would happen, but it can happen all the time. One of the best outcomes is that we can discuss everything afterwards… The meaning belongs to the audience.”
This year’s Gold Cup winners will be announced on June 20.
