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“We Do Believe the Audience is More Intelligent Than the Industry Thinks: Producer Sylvain Corbeil on the Cannes-Premiering Peak Everything
Peak Everything Since founding Metafilms over two decades ago, Montreal-based producer Sylvain Corbeil has become a prolific and respected pillar of Quebec’s independent film scene, collaborating with filmmakers whose bold and idiosyncratic visions have served to bolster the place of modern Canadian cinema on a world stage.
Alongside fellow producer Nancy Grant, who co-leads Metafilms, Corbeil has championed the work of widely acclaimed French-language filmmakers like Xavier Dolan (Mommy, It’s Only the End of the World), Maxime Giroux (Felix & Meira), Denis Côté (That Kind of Summer), Monia Chokri (A Brother’s Love), and Anne Émond (Nuit #1, Our Loved Ones).
A frequent presence at the Cannes Film Festival, Corbeil has found particular success there in recent years. Last year, Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language won the inaugural prize from the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, en route to being chosen as Canada’s official entry to the Academy Awards. The year prior, Chokri’s Simple comme Sylvain (The Nature of Love) premiered in the Un Certain Regard section; and a year before that, Corbeil brought Falcon Lake, the directorial debut of Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon, to the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. (“There are no tricks, by the way,” Corbeil tells Filmmaker of his ongoing hot streak. “I don’t know how that has happened. We just do our best to make good movies.”)
Corbeil returns this year with Peak Everything (Amour Apocalypse), Émond’s latest feature, again premiering in Directors’ Fortnight. An existential romantic comedy, the film stars Patrick Hivon as Adam, a kennel owner who struggles with depression and climate anxiety. After purchasing a pyramidal light therapy box to combat his symptoms, Adam becomes enamored of Tina (Piper Perabo), a customer service representative who helps him to set up the device. After their long-distance communication is interrupted by a natural disaster, Adam decides to take action and sets out to find her.
Ahead of Peak Everything’s Cannes premiere, Corbeil discussed his approach to producing, why he keeps coming back to Cannes, and the importance of maintaining faith through challenging times.
Filmmaker: To start with Peak Everything, how did you first connect with Anne Émond and cultivate that relationship over the years? Your relationship dates back to even earlier than her debut feature, Nuit #1, which was in 2011.
Corbeil: Well, first of all, you have to understand that I’m a big believer in arthouse filmmaking, which means, most of the time, that the screenwriter is also the director and that the vision of a film comes first from that person—instead of, let’s say in the U.S. system, where it’s coming from the producers buying the book rights, hiring a screenwriter to do it, then hiring someone to direct. That also works, but what I’ve learned over the years is that the more we can centralize the creative process, the greater chance there is that a strong vision will emerge, because it will be less spread between different perceptions and sensibilities.
Filmmaking is a collective art, but it’s important that you add the right people at each position. Of course, you want their specific sensibilities, but everyone has to work together toward one vision. When you centralize screenwriting and directing, you have more of a chance of maintaining that vision; then you add ingredients to serve it. That way, it’s not about who’s making the film, it’s not about egos, and it’s outside of that; it’s humans doing a film they can all care about and that relate to. I want everybody to feel proud of the film they made, as a collective adventure.
It was the same with Anne’s first feature film, Nuit #1, in 2011. We knew her because of her shorts; we did some shorts also with her. She’s one of these people who’s able to craft a body of work that is totally their own, with a strong signature and a particular blend of sensitivities. Anne is ultra-sensitive; she perceives emotions and details in a very precise way. At the same time, she doesn’t necessarily get overwhelmed by these emotions, and she manages to structure them into very original stories. She has such love, also, for her characters.
I really like what she does; though the films that she’s done are very different from one another, I can see how they’re connected. Film after film, we’ve been able to expand our conversation about art, about filmmaking, about the power of images and sound and what we can do with them. This is the fourth feature film I have produced with Anne, and in each film the confidence we have in each other grows, and we’re able to go further into our artistic conversations. That level of trust is also important because, when you commit, you commit totally.
With this film specifically, we started development in 2019, before the pandemic; at that time, I felt close to the main character. Anne also felt close to that character. He’s a mix of us both, in a way; we feel very anxious about the times that we live in. I know that people are tired of hearing about climate change, about depression and anxiety, but that’s not disappearing. It’s something we need to address, and the best way to fight feelings of hopelessness and anxiety is to take action. That’s how you’re going to free yourself from feeling powerless and unfit for this world. That’s how you change the course of things; it’s important to have faith. We believe human beings are able to turn things around. If we managed to make this mess, we can clean it up and make a better world.
Filmmaker: Peak Everything particularly explores the power of positive thinking, even when the odds feel insurmountable. It’s defiantly optimistic. As an independent film producer, I’m sure you relate to that professionally as well as personally.
Corbeil: It’s getting harder to make independent films—that’s for sure. It’s also harder and harder to make significant images that will stand out and actually captivate an audience. Why? Because I’m old enough to have seen our world before social media, and a world after social media—what we see today, especially in the younger generations—is that attention span is down. Their relation to what they see on screen is completely different from mine.
You’re in competition with this 15-second TikTok video, in a sense. Myself and our filmmakers, we go back to this belief that it’s not going to always be like this. People will get completely fed up with social media and meaningless cat videos. As a human, you’ll need something else. And the essence of cinema is to create a meaningful impact on the viewers—something that will not only be attractive but will be able to change the person seeing the film.
We have to get that person into a screening room first, which is why we have film festivals and awards—to create awareness. In the history of humankind, this is probably the time where there are the most images produced ever, right? But we’re hanging in there, because we have this belief that cinema will have a comeback to more meaningful images with the capacity to transform people.
Filmmaker: What distinguishes the Canadian system of funding for independent film, in terms of ensuring you can get these kinds of director-driven films made?
Corbeil: It’s a very competitive time, so you have to work extra hard. It took three rounds of applications to get Peak Everything made; that’s the approach with the Canadian system, which allowed us to make the film, unlike the system in the U.S., which depends on equity investors who need to see comparison points. Instead of wanting to see new images, they want older images mixed together and think that the combination should create a profit. [laughs]
In the face of such things, we keep calm and carry on, to use that British saying. I really care about the first steps of a movie, in the development process. Since we don’t have the U.S. system, we do have the liberty to explore new ways of filmmaking that are not necessarily fact-checked or proven to be efficient. Because the Canadian system allows it, because it’s mostly public investments and not grants, we have the opportunity to make films that are truly original, which is the case with Peak Everything.
That freedom allows us to the foundation of what a film should be, to take risks in terms of the types of characters we depict and the ways they interact. We also believe in the intelligence of the audience. It was the same with Universal Language. We do believe the audience is more intelligent than the industry thinks; if you create something that is well-made and sophisticated enough, and if you’re rigorous about your crafting and don’t take the audience for granted, I think you can succeed.
This is a more difficult process than having a genre film that’s horror, for example, at its core. That can often be an easier path, though films take thousands of different paths. My gamble is to always keep to a high standard in terms of quality of writing and ideas, then to bring the right people in at the right time—even with distributors, ensuring they see the vision. It’s about collective crafting; you can have success only if you protect the vision at all costs.
Filmmaker: How would you describe your producing practice, overall, especially within that collective-crafting mindset?
Corbeil: If we agree on that way of doing things—to not only perfectly understand the vision of a person, but to serve that vision on every step—you have to be there. You also have to take a first look; I am the first person the director speaks with. With Anne, we’re good friends, and we’ve known each other for many years now. Whenever she has a new idea, she’s just going to call me, and then we meet, and we get excited about it, and then we can start talking about a vision. I’ll bring in my perspective as a producer, though I never undermine the creative process. Let’s say, for example, she comes up with a very ambitious sci-fi movie: I know the ins and outs of how we can do a film like that in Canada. I’ll know, technically speaking, if it’s possible. If it’s in French, for example, I’m going to go, “Well, we can’t get a big-enough minimum guarantee.”
Before we launch ourselves into an adventure, the key is to not only dream high but also to be realistic, to dream well. You don’t want to spend five years of your time and end up with nothing in your hands. Once we’re in, we want to make sure it will happen. I can evaluate, “Is it going to be hard? Is it going to be easy? How long is it going to take?” I can evaluate that from the first conversation.
Often, I’m present in all of the writing process, unless the person wants to have time alone. I’m working with Charlotte Le Bon on her next script, and she’s in a phase right now where she just needs to write, write, write, and she’ll share it with me when she’s ready to. That’s perfect, too. All these filmmakers have their different ways of interacting, but I’m very involved.
I’m a content producer, as well; in producing, you have to have the creative mind of a filmmaker but also be a good seller of ideas to people so you can attract sales agents, distributors, cast, and so forth. You have to have good human-relation skills to connect all these different human beings; you have to be well-organized. You have to be good in calculating all of those things. It embodies so many different aspects of your brain, but that’s why I like it. I like the fact that each film is a new world you dive into; you’re always kind of traveling, even if you don’t go anywhere. The way I approach production and development up close, and it’s a conversation more or less.
This conversation also continues while we shoot. I’m present during casting auditions, in the editing process, in the sound design and color correction—everything, really. I’m trying to be wise, including fiscally, in how we’re playing with tax credits to raise the right partners. I’m also very present internationally, mostly in European countries, though I’m trying to build bridges in the U.S.
Filmmaker: You are back at Cannes again this year — last year, you had Universal Language at the festival; the year before that, Simple comme Sylvain, or The Nature of Love; the year before that, Falcon Lake. What makes Cannes a special place to bring films?
Corbeil: I’ve traveled to so many different film festivals, and I like many of them, but I have to say that Cannes is my favorite. Everybody that is important is there. It’s this huge gathering of film lovers and filmmakers, people that care about this in such a dedicated but also specified way; it’s such a complex ecosystem, you can never see the end of it. It’s always in movement and in evolution. The place itself is magical: the history of the festival, how it brings awareness to creators with specific voices. That’s my goal, to make sure that we don’t live in a standardized world where only streamers are calling the shots. You want to have this diversity of voices that are strong enough to exist throughout the world. Cannes gives those voices a megaphone.
I’m happiest in a world that’s more egalitarian, where all the cultures are represented. Film festivals help raise voices that are not heard enough, so that we still, as humans, are able to be challenged in our ideals, to be questioned and to transform ourselves. If you live in certainty in your life, I’m sorry but you’re going to have a sad, frustrated life. Because that’s not how it is meant to be lived. It’s meant to be ever-evolving. You’re supposed to expand your mind as you grow older. We’re there for that, as filmmakers.
Filmmaker: What else can you say about the success of Universal Language? The film—after winning the Audience Award in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes—was released in many international markets, shortlisted for the Oscar for international feature, and is currently nominated for ten Canadian Screen Awards.
Corbeil: The most beautiful thing about Universal Language is that, first of all, we made that film with all our hearts. It was a truly amazing collective experiment, but we never made it for a specific purpose or festival. It just happened that the film was ready to be shown; logically speaking, it would have been more logically placed at Berlin, because Matthew had won two awards in Berlin for The Twentieth Century, but we were not ready. We were still in post-production, and it was impossible to finish the film for Berlin. We thought, “Let’s try for Cannes,” without any expectations, but—immediately—Directors’ Fortnight was so enthusiastic. I believe we were the first film selected. They called Matthew, they called me, and they told us, “We care so much about this film.”
You want to go where you’re loved, where you’re wanted. Everything added up. We got some amazing reviews, from the trades, and that transformed into a lot of sales internationally; we ended up winning the audience award from Directors’ Fortnight, which brought more and more attention, and so forth. It was the magic of cinema at work. You never know what’s going to happen. Most of the time, it’s not like that, but sometimes it is. When it happens, you’re lifted up and transported; it was such an amazing experience. We had such a long run to bring attention to Matthew’s work and to the work of all of our creative collaborators, which is something that I cherish. We believe it’s a collective work, and I wanted everybody to feel that the sun was shining on them.
What I can say as well, for Matthew’s next film, is that it’s going to open up new doors. It was a small budget for Universal Language, so we’ll have a bigger budget on the next one. It will be English-language, and there might be known actors. It’s not about winning prizes but about earning freedom.
Filmmaker: Through Metafilms, you’ve played a role in elevating the distinctive stylings of Canadian and Quebecois filmmakers, including those of all of the directors we’ve discussed today. How intentionally are you working with filmmakers to encourage them to pursue their own artistic visions, rather than more commercial interests or mainstream sensibilities?
Corbeil: You want to create traction. You want to inspire other filmmakers. As Canadians, we’re lucky enough to be Quebecois; there’s already a care here in that we want to have our specific artistic expression. When I go to the rest of Canada, what I feel is that there’s a certain lack of that care, and that a lot of English Canadian filmmakers dream simply of making it in the U.S., so their dream is already pre-formatted in a sense. I just want to tell them: drop this, and start dreaming for yourselves. Start embodying work that represents you. Think about what makes you distinctive. You have a voice in this world conversation. Don’t try to mimic anyone’s voice. Find your own voice, dream your own dreams; by doing that, if you dream large, you will be seen, you will be heard, and your ideas will be shared. Film must always be a conversation.
