Polytechnique

Polytechnique (2009)

A dramatization of the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, on December 9, 1989, where 14 female engineering students were murdered (and 13 were wounded) by a 25 year old psychotic misogynist armed with a semi-automatic weapon.

Date of release
2009-02-06
TMDB
7.1 / 10 (725)
Runtime
1h 17m
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director
Denis Villeneuve

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $6M
  • Based on: École Polytechnique massacre
  • Filmed in: Montreal
  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Motion Picture

Polytechnique is a 2009 Canadian tragedy film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Villeneuve and Jacques Davidts. Starring Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau, and Karine Vanasse, the film is based on the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and re-enacts the events of the incident through the eyes of two students who witness a gunman (Gaudette) murder fourteen young women.

Production

Karine Vanasse, who played Valérie, helped produce Polytechnique, and wanted to make a film about the massacre for years. She helped secure director Denis Villeneuve for the film, who at the time was respected for making the 2000 film Maelström. Despite the sensitivity to the incident in Quebec, Villeneuve asserted it was not too soon for a film, and that there was an important conversation to be had.

Vanasse researched by speaking to the families of women killed in École Polytechnique de Montréal. In the film, one of the women tells The Killer that the students are not feminists, with Vanasse explaining, "One of the women who was there told me that it was the first time in her life that she had to confront her femininity head on".

École Polytechnique de Montréal gave the filmmakers the right to use the campus as a location, but Villeneuve opted against filming there to be respectful. The film was shot at Cégep de Maisonneuve and Collège Ahuntsic as well as Griffintown and Westmount. Villeneuve shot the film in black and white, so as to avoid the presence of blood on screen.

There were two versions of the film produced, one in English and one in French. The director Denis Villeneuve hoped the film would enter into the English-Canadian market, as well as the U.S. one. Villeneuve said the subject matter was challenging for the cast and crew to work with.

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

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