by Brad Balfour

G21 Contributing Editor

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NEW YORK, NY, USA - Once upon a time in Montreal, there was this French-Canadian film director who made many commercials but had never created the feature film he was meant to. Over the next 15 years, JeanFranÁois Pouliot sought out the ideal picture he could make, but none appeared. When he had so many commercials to make and his own software company (Eloda), working more hours than available, a script by writer Ken Scott arrived, and he knew he had found what he was looking for. And a fable it should be -- the story of a tiny fishing village, St. Marie-La Mauderne, in need of a financial and spiritual boost in the form of a new factory.

That plant is promised to be built provided they lure a doctor to live fulltime on their island. So the villagers devise a scheme to attract Dr. Christopher Lewis to leave the big city and become a local. Titled "La Grande Séduction"in Canada and "Seducing Dr. Lewis" on these shores, this terse tale proves there is more than one way to charm an audience -- as well as Dr. Lewis.

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G21: What took you so long to make your first film?

Jean-FranÁois Pouliot: Why did it have to happen when I have a whole 'nother life?! It's weird because I have always been a director of commercials, so I've had the chance to be picky and not have to make a feature if I didn't want to. I did not want to launch another big project; I had created a company, and that's work similar to making a film. So for 15 years I was offered scripts but couldn't commit on them; they were not right for me. I wasn't interested, so it came as a surprise that when I started an Internet company, a script came along that was so good. I didn't know what to do, so I asked the shareholders for permission to leave ... They said, "Do a good film; it will help the company."

G21: Were you worried that it might be too regional?

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JFP: It's so different from what we know about Quebec. Everyone finds the region mysterious; it's an island not like Quebec but exotic for everybody. It makes the story more of a fable; you are somewhere and nowhere at the same time. Nobody feels at home; it's a bunch of rocks, trees, and ocean. The harbor is a discovery for us, not another Hollywood backlot.

G21: So the idea of placing the story in this isolated area is what makes it work for you.

JFP: There is no place like home -- I believe that since we are always rooted somewhere, one theme is that of dignity. The fishermen are a proud people, out to earn a living, proud of w ho they are. That's why, as you see in the beginning of the film, I imagine their life as wonderful and happy. They had self-respect and were able to make love. When they didn't have a way to make a living, they didn't have it. That caused a loss of dignity, and if you do not have it, you do questionable things in order to regain that dignity. So that's the theme -- on regaining dignity. A Quebec songwriter once wrote, "The best way to kill a man is pay him for not working."

G21: They sure have a convoluted way of getting it back.

JFP: The second theme to this story is that of apparent truth and deeper truth. Those who are trying to lie as they do actually hold the deeper truth. They have honest motivations -- of getting their dignity back -- for telling the doctor their lies. Those lies are the apparent truth. This life was false, but unconsciously Dr. Lewis's quest has him finding the deeper truth -- which he finds from those who are willing to lie to find their deeper truth and get their dignity back. We all have masks; we don't show ourselves on the first date. This is about seduction -- on the surface is deception, but underneath is truth.

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