Léolo

Léolo (1992)

Growing Up Can Be Painfully Funny.

The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.

Date of release
1992-09-16
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (151)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Director
Jean-Claude Lauzon

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Montreal
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Léolo is a 1992 Canadian coming-of-age fantasy comedy-drama written and directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon. The film tells the story of a young boy named Léo "Léolo" Lauzon, played by Maxime Collin, who engages in an active fantasy life while growing up with his Montreal family, and begins to have sexual fantasies about his neighbour Bianca, played by Giuditta del Vecchio. The film also stars Ginette Reno, Pierre Bourgault, Andrée Lachapelle, Denys Arcand, Julien Guiomar, and Germain Houde. Gilbert Sicotte narrates the film as the adult Léolo.

Production

Director Jean-Claude Lauzon wrote the screenplay, starting it in Sicily while shooting his first film Night Zoo. It served in part as an autobiography, with Lauzon stating he wrote it "almost in a state of trance" and was initially unsure how the storyline would develop or end.

Although Lauzon had offers to shoot Hollywood action films after Night Zoo (1987), he instead presented the Léolo script to producer Lyse Lafontaine. Lafontaine stated the screenplay had been rejected by other producers and was difficult to read, but she found it "magic" and produced it with Aimée Danis. The film had a $5 million budget.

Singer Ginette Reno was cast as the mother after initially rejecting the role, finding the subject matter was "too violent and rough". She was persuaded to star in the film, believing it might win her new fans, even if others were shocked by it. For the title role, Maxime Collin was cast at age 11.

For the part of the Word Tamer, who reads Léolo's writings, Lauzon cast his mentor, university professor Pierre Bourgault. Although in reality Bourgault is a strong proponent of the Quebec sovereignty movement, Lauzon denied he was cast for political reasons. A bodybuilder, Yves Montmarquette, portrayed Fernand for the scenes after the character builds up his muscles.

Lafontaine's son Mikaël had a small part as a swimmer. The film's French producers asked Lauzon to use actor Pierre Richard in the film, which he did not.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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