It was a very emotional press screening of the miniseries. Glowing AbyssWednesday morning in the air-conditioned theater of the Cinémathèque Québécoise, a stone’s throw from UQAM.
First, because this new episode of Radio-Canada, posted online on the Extra de Tou.TV platform, chronicles actress Anik Lemay’s intense, epic battle with breast cancer in powerful footage.Escape, One way), who received this alarming diagnosis in March 2018.
Then, because the great Marc Messier, who died suddenly on Tuesday, plays his last role on Quebec television, that of the father of a heroine inspired by Anik Lemay, who co-wrote the lyrics Glowing Abyss with actress Marie-Eve Perron.
PHOTO EVA-MOD TK, COURTESY OF RADIO CANADA
Sylvie Leonard and Marc Messier in a scene from the film Glowing Abyss
The most ironic and saddest thing about all of this is that Mark Messier’s first scene in Glowing Abyss happens at a funeral. When the 78-year-old actor’s mocking smile and blue eyes appeared on screen, tremors and murmurs ran through the audience.
The work is sharp, tough and funny at the same time. Glowing Abyss comes from an excellent collection of chronicles published by Anik Lemay in Urbania.
After discovering the disease, Anik Lemay lost literally everything: her health, her hair, her breasts, her job, and even her boyfriend, who left her before she began a series of painful procedures and complex surgeries.
This rich material served as the basis for Glowing Abysssome personal aspects of which have been fictitious or altered. On the other hand, the entire medical path of the main character strictly corresponds to the one that Anik Lemay went through in hospitals in 2018.
PHOTO EVA-MOD TK, COURTESY OF RADIO CANADA
Marie-Eve Perron and Gabrielle Lemire in a scene from the film Glowing Abyss
Before cancer took her, Anik Lemay acted in a romantic comedy. You and me on Radio-Canada alongside Jean-Philippe Perras, who was also her husband in real life. IN Glowing AbyssAnik Lemay’s name is Agatha Charpentier (Marie-Eve Perron), and she runs a public relations magazine with her younger lover Samuel (Gabriel Lemire).
So, theoretically, Samuel is not Jean-Philippe Perras, but we agree that the two men look very similar both physically and in facial and vocal expressions. This is definitely not a coincidence.
Here are gossip that does not overshadow the emotional charge that this deep Glowing Abyss. The first two episodes I’ve seen are very good and made a strong impression from the start.
44-year-old journalist Agathe (referring to Marie-Eve Perron) undergoes a mammogram by director Miriam Verreault (Witches) close-up films. The series doesn’t say anything. She shows everything for the sake of realism and truth. Sensitive hearts refrain.
Each of the stages that a cancer patient like Agatha/Anik will go through Glowing Abyss will reveal it in its raw form. A biopsy is painful and traumatic. And this continues through scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, surgeries and drains until she has a bowel movement, not forgetting the numerous meetings where the bad news hits Agatha at an incredible rate.
Actress Marie-Eve Perron gives her all in this challenging role, which forces her to strip and show her breasts at various stages of the disease. It wouldn’t be a spoiler to say that Anik Lemay underwent a double mastectomy. And this is exactly what awaits Agatha in the second episode, after she is crowned there by her beloved Samuel, let us not forget, not without telling her that her breasts are “too beautiful to hurt.”
Marie-Eve Perron also completely shaved her head when she started filming the film. Glowing AbyssThat’s not to say she wasn’t involved in the project, which was helmed by Julie Snyder’s Productions J.
PHOTO COURTESY OF RADIO CANADA
Marie-Laurence Moreau, Ariana Castellanos, Marie-Eve Perron, Sophie Desmarais and Kathleen Fortin in a scene from the film Glowing Abyss
The light of this miniseries comes from the women—Anik Lemay calls them fairies in her book—who surround and support Agatha through this ordeal. There is her sister Edith (Julie Roussel), as well as her friends Nathalie (Kathleen Fortin), Marianne (Ariana Castellanos), Beatrice (Sophie Desmarais) and Valerie (Marie-Laurence Moreau).
There’s also Charlotte (Agathe Bellemare-Ledoux), Agathe’s 11-year-old daughter, who asks herself questions a child should never ask: Will my mother die?
To lighten the atmosphere, an imaginary character is added to the story – Gros Denis (Louis Champagne), who personifies the denial that Agatha temporarily experiences. When Big Denis appears, it is a sign that Agatha is coming out of her cancerous state and allowing herself to be carefree for a short time. “This denial is necessary to survive such an unsettling journey,” Anik Lemay recalled Wednesday.
The series also has special effects: the floor opens up under Agatha’s feet and the water engulfs her in a whirlwind. It’s well executed, but perhaps unnecessary in such a detailed context, which is shocking without the need to illustrate our heroine’s inner torment.
However, it is impossible to remain indifferent to such a well-told (true) story, which in ten episodes covers nine months in the life of Anik Lemay, from her diagnosis to the end of treatment.
And, fortunately, everything ends well. Anik Lemay is always there to witness this.
Glowing Abyss offered on Tou.tv Extra.