“The Contemplation of Mystery”: A Mystical Hunt

Whether for the theater or for the cinema, Emmanuel Schwartz has always been attracted by complex characters that allow him to explore the gray areas of the human soul. The role he plays in the psychological drama The contemplation of the mystery is no exception. “He’s a kind of metrosexual Hercules, a tragic urban hero,” explains the 39-year-old actor.

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This intriguing character around which director Albéric Aurtenèche’s first feature film is built is Éloi, an anguished young man who has to go to his father’s hometown to attend a strange ceremony organized in homage to the latter by the hunters. from the neighborhood.

By trying to find out more about the hunting accident that caused the death of his father a year earlier, Éloi will discover a mystical universe populated by shady characters, including a young woman passionate about hunting (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) and a mysterious hunter nicknamed the Indian (Reda Guerinik)…

Even if he was already familiar with the work of Albéric Aurtenèche for having already collaborated with him in the short film Sigismund without imagesa few years ago, Emmanuel Schwartz said he was won over by the audacity and originality of the screenplay of The contemplation of the mystery.

“When someone offers you a scenario, you always secretly hope that it will be something that is unique like that”, confides the actor in an interview with the Log.

” There is in The contemplation of the mystery a kind of “magical realism”, to borrow a fashionable term. It was really an interesting playground. »

Explode standards

Saying he was “tired of always seeing the same films” coming out in the cinema, Albéric Aurtenèche took pleasure in breaking standards by trying to bring the viewer into an unexpected universe, bordering on the fantastic.

“I try to make films that I would like to see and that would attract me as a spectator, he slips. But I also want to make a cinema that tries things out. I don’t want to sit on already agreed forms because it bores me. But trying things also means possibly screwing up. I’m very happy with the result, but I can’t wait to see how the film will be perceived by viewers. »

Originally, Albéric Aurtenèche had no interest in hunting. It was by hearing about, several years ago, a friend of his family who participated in masses organized by the order of the Knights of Saint-Hubert that his curiosity was piqued.

“My relationship to hunting comes from this gang that celebrates a relationship to hunting that is above all mystical,” explains the Montreal director of French origin.

“This universe allowed me to address the question of the relationship to death. I also wanted to add a little magic to this story to make the viewer doubt the reality of what he is seeing. There is a bit of irony in all of this. »

A dose of cynicism

If the character of Éloi is in a way his alter ego, Albéric Aurtenèche does not hide the fact that he wrote the role especially for Emmanuel Schwartz.

“Emmanuel corresponded well to the cynicism of the character and his slightly quirky humor. I must also say that I very well imagined him trying to disentangle himself in the forest like an urbanite who was uncomfortable in that context! he says, laughing.

Emmanuel Schwartz also admits to having a “mirror relationship” with the character of Éloi.

“I touched a hunting bow for the first time two weeks before filming started and I had a sore shoulder when I woke up the next day! It gives an idea of ​​how unacclimated I was to that world. But I think it served the character well in the end,” the actor concluded.

► The contemplation of the mystery hits theaters October 22.