“Lines of flight”: the mirror of our time

The dramatic comedy Lines of flight, which brings together on screen Catherine Chabot, Mariana Mazza and Léane Labrèche- Dor invites us to the stormy reunion of three high school friends, now in their thirties. Like a mirror, the film confronts us with our contradictions, as well as with our vision of the world today, bringing reflection through laughter.  

Audrey (Catherine Chabot), Sabina (Mariana Mazza), Valérie (Léane Labrèche-Dor), as well as their respective partners (Maxime De Cotret, Victoria Diamond and Mickaël Gouin) meet up for a drunken evening. But as the evening progresses, the trio’s friendship is put to the test.

Old tensions rebound and exchanges slip into an authentic crescendo against the backdrop of the climate crisis. “Can you drink bubbles without talking about melting sea ice?” asks one of the six protagonists.

The characters in Lines of Flight are those imagined by Catherine Chabot, author of the eponymous play. “These are the six voices in my head,” she said in an interview with Métro.

In addition to being at the origin of the story and holding one of the three main roles, the actress co-wrote the film with Émile Gaudreault, and co-directed it with Miryam Bouchard.

To When they left the theater three years ago, the co-producers, Émile Gaudreault and Denise Robert, had the immediate desire to transpose the universe of Lignes de loin to the cinema.

“The film allows us to seek out the humanity of the characters even more. We enter into their interiority, into their complexity, into their flaws. […] With the film version, we allow access to the soul of the actors,” explains Catherine Chabot.  

Credits: Eveblavoie

Bearer of hope and reflections

If the play is darker and more cynical, the film is more hopeful. This is because, since 2019, Catherine Chabot has evolved in her introspection.

The 30-year-old explains that she found answers to several questions that tormented her when writing her play, instilling in her the desire to do a more luminous cinematographic work. 

“I asked myself a lot of questions about whether I am where I want to be, where I had projected myself at 30? Am I meeting the expectations of my family and friends? What do I want to do in life? Am I in the right place in my career, in my love life? I do you want children? Do you want to move to the suburbs or do I want to spend my life traveling?” she says.

Meanwhile, Catherine Chabot gave birth to a baby girl, Joséphine, whom she was still breastfeeding during filming of the film. According to her, it is the fact of becoming a mother that has inspired her with more optimism despite the context of the current crisis. 

“There are a lot of people my age who ask themselves the question in relation to the world in which we live, are we having children?”. This is also a topical issue dealt with in Lines of Flight and on which the characters oppose. 

“I got pregnant and I saw as a gift. What can we do that is beautiful in this world? For me, having a child is the answer to my question […] Anchoring in the world is my daughter”, continues Catherine Chabot. 

Prisoners of our contradictions

Like the characters in Lines of Flight, Catherine Chabot thinks that we are all – including herself – prisoners of our contradictions.

“We are very aware of what is happening in the world, but at the same time we are faced with not being able to do much. But we have values, so we often take actions that contradict our values…”, she emits.

I try to see my blind spots. No one is perfect, we all have our dark side and we shouldn't be embarrassed to say so. 

Catherine Chabot, actress, co-director and co-screenwriter of Leaking Lines

But Catherine’s work is not politically engaged, she says. Rather, it is “initiating discussion and engaging reflection” that is important to him.

The comedy encourages, through laughter, the spectators to reflect and rethink the future in a world in crisis. “Laughter is also necessary for me in life, it saves me. I have a lot of self-mockery, I laugh a lot at myself. It's like my defense mechanism. It’s the way I proceed in life, so that’s how I also write”, specifies Catherine Chabot. 

If the film tells above all the story of thirty-somethings ” at the crossroads of their lives”, all generations will be able to find their way there, bringing to light the great existential questions specific to our time.

The dramatic comedy Lines of flight is in theaters everywhere in Quebec from Wednesday July 6.