Dusk for a Hitman is a 2023 crime drama film set in the 1970s. It follows the most feared hitman in the Montreal underworld, Donald Lavoie (Éric Bruneau). Below is our Q&A with Raymond St-Jean, the director and co-writer (with Martin Girard) of Dusk for a Hitman, on the filmmaking process' various elements — edited and condensed for clarity. The film is available to rent/buy on VOD platforms.
What was the driving force for Dusk for a Hitman?
The driving force was this character, Donald Lavoie, who is a fascinating character. He was this killer — this hitman, working for a very powerful gang in Montreal, the Dubois gang, during the 70s mainly. And he was bigger than nature, he was very intelligent, and he had a lot of charisma. In the end, he betrayed his gang, became a witness, and almost by himself had this whole operation shut down because of him being a witness. Being also a very bright witness in court, he was a challenge for the lawyers; the prosecutors. What's also interesting is that in the end, after his jail sentence, which was short for all the bad things he did, he just went into nature, disappeared, and was never involved in crime again. So I think this character is the real driving force of the story.
How did you and your co-writer, Martin Girard, approach the screenwriting process for this film about a retired hitman in his life?
Yeah, well, we decided very early in the process that we would tell the story from Donald's point of view; he's in every scene of the film. There are two times in the film where he's looked at and very curious. There's one time, one place in the movie, where his wife is watching him sleep, but he doesn't know he's watched. And the other time is when the policeman is watching him. So otherwise, he's always in control, always in command, and is trying to be. That gave us a perspective on his reality. So, what you see in people around him are not cardboard characters, but they're puppets for him, people he used — he does whatever he wants with them. And he thinks he's in control of his life, but in fact, he's not. He's a loser, actually, so what we wanted to do is look at this story from his point of view and try to have the audience live it with him, without having sympathy or empathy for him, but just make this trip with him where he feels he's in control. He has all the power and the money in the world, anything he could dream of, coming from a very, very poor background and being uneducated. So he gets all that, but it's some very frail structure; everything crumbles as he goes along, and he loses everything but finds a way, maybe to redeem himself, which is also interesting. In the end, he does something useful. Is it for revenge? Is it for redemption? We don't really know. But the idea was to adopt his point of view — trying not to judge him but to feel the consequences of all the mistakes he makes.
How much of the film's events and dialogue did you try to keep biographical, and which ones were fictionalized on?
Oh, mostly not fictional. The story itself is fairly like the story of his last two years in crime. We kept the important points. We changed stuff, of course. He was arrested on a bridge, on a big bridge in Montreal, but we couldn't shoot on a bridge, so we did something. These little adjustments we made, are normal in a movie, and we changed for a grammar purpose. He was asked to kill one of his in-laws, and we changed it to his brother because we thought it was more involving grammatically and made this dilemma clearer. We made these choices as far as the dialogue goes. We imagined how these guys could talk, which, of course, ultimately, you're making a movie, so you make everything more interesting. What it was, really: it's a drama, fiction, and character study. In my opinion, I have no personal experience of it. But that 'Gangster Life' is not that exciting and not that interesting. From what we know from police investigations, you have to make it more interesting than it is in reality.
Yeah, so Éric Bruneau was an excellent choice for casting Donald Lavoie. Could you tell me a little bit about that casting process?
Yeah, well, We did the audition for the role. Eric was one of our first. I wanted to meet all the actors that could play this role in Montreal. We have great actors. And, of course, Eric had this look that he looked similar to the actual man. It wasn't the reason why we decided to work with him; he came to the audition with a great desire to work, to explore, and to seek something, and that's what I saw very fast in him. He was ready to do the work, very curious, asking interesting questions. He dominated the audition very simply said. I started working with him, and what I saw in the auditions was real. We just worked for a good year together, we met regularly, we read, we questioned ourselves, and he's a great investigator of characters, so we found all the motivations he needed. We worked a lot together, and he was deeply involved. It was a big present he [gave] me because he's a big star here; I was lucky to have him with all of his heart.
What notes do you remember giving the cast — either before or during production?
Notes... Well, one note was, don't cut your hair. We were in the Pandemic, and the actors were all at home, and I said to the man, "Well, just let your hair grow, your facial hair grow, and we'll achieve great realism if we do that." We won't have to use wigs, which are always killer when you think about a history piece. So that was one note that we had.
And also trust in the dialogues. The dialogues we wrote, Martin Girard and I, there's a certain humor in it, and to work, it has to be delivered in a very serious way. It's not a comedy, it's not the actors on a set, these characters are not conscious of what they're doing. But there's still a form of humor in it. It has to be done very seriously to work. They all went along with that, and it gives a special tone to the film.
This film centers on the period from 1979 to 1983. How did you handle the film elements that reflect this such as production and costume design?
Yeah, of course. As you know, we were working on a pretty small budget like an independent movie; maybe in the US, [it's] even smaller. So, we shot everything on location. So, as time passes, all these locations tend to be destroyed or simply disappear or transform. So, we did a deep research in location and found the places and homes that were still intact from the period. We worked on the details with Marie-Hélène Lavoie, the art director; Valérie Gagnon-Hamel, the costume designer; and Jean-François Lord, the DOP; we tried to look at movies of the time, and tried to think of stories in the frame. This has to be precise. We have to fill the frame with period details, forget what's outside the frame, and be very focused on everything. So, the details on every set are important. And with Jean-François Lord, the DOP, we went to movies of the period and just watched how they were lit and tried not to copy or imitate but give a new, 'our' version of the way films were done at the time. We have a crisp image, we have dark contrast that night, and we try to come back to that. So, it's sharp and gritty at the same time. We tried to get this texture of the movies of the time.
This is not a meta-gangster movie or a postmodern film. We tried to be very truthful and achieve a form of realism. I think that was our main objective. Treat the film, treat the matter as if we were shooting a film in the 70s somehow. Not joking about it, but being very serious about it and film it as if it were true, like a documentary.
Which scenes still resonate with you from Dusk for a Hitman and while you were on set filming and in the Final Cut?
Yeah, well, the most powerful scene of the movie is where he's supposed to kill someone from his family, and it's in a forest; you don't know what he will do, so there's a tension there that Eric keeps so well. You go into his mind and feel the dilemma he's living in. Is he going to do it? Will he? Where is he willing to go to keep his position of power in this gang and the city, actually? Because it was feared. There are stories that say that when this man came into a bar, some people would just go under that table because he had such a reputation. So this is a moment when it is very tough to make a decision. And Eric gave us a very strong performance there. And I like the forest, the fields, and the fall also. When we're lucky enough here to shoot a movie on location during the fall, you have all these colors that come out, which make beautiful shots. This scene is a scene I'm very proud of. Yeah.
Where was the movie filmed and how long was the principal photography?
The movie was filmed in Montreal and around Montreal. An average shooting schedule in Quebec is around 30 days, so with COVID and everything, there were a few days here and there added and cut, but it's around 30 days, which is normal here.
Then, the final question is, what do you hope the audiences will take away from Dusk for a Hitman?
Well, for the American audience, it's a chance to see a genre movie, a genre that is typically American. It was born in America, the 'Gangster' movie, with the Western or like Jazz, pure American creation. So, it's interesting to see a take from a different angle. It's still a movie with an American feel, But our vision, our angle on the character, and the main character may be different than what you would expect in an American movie. That's interesting for an American audience to see. To be surprised by a film that looks familiar but then has something different to offer than most of the American movies. We didn't make him the hero. He's the principal character, but it's a character study, so we explore his mind without judging him, but we don't make a hero out of him. And that could be fun to see.
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