Samuel Kanteen enjoys drawing, writing, and cinema

Cartoonist and screenwriter Samuel Kantin received funding from Telefilm Canada to produce the film last Thursday. wretched elephant, adapted from his eponymous comedy, published in 2013. In addition to preparing for filming that is scheduled to begin in 2022, the artist is working on a comic and is preparing to present a short film at the Fantasia Festival.

the movie wretched elephant Directed by Jean-François Leblanc, who will sign his first feature film here. The director has produced several short films in the past that have been shown in festivals such as Landgraves (2020) and 12 men in Tabarnak (2011).

wretched elephantA film written since 2016

Samuel and Jean-Francois have been writing the movie together since 2016. They didn’t know each other before collaborating on this feature film, but the director was already a huge fan of the cartoonist. It clicked instantly when we first met. I felt confident with him and we have the same references, on Samuel Cantine. Together, they have written about 22 transcripts, having received various funding from SODEC since 2016, in particular.

When Samuel Cantine learned he had secured funding from Telefilm Canada, he was thrilled and excited. We believed in the project, of course, but when I heard the news, I was really happy and surprised. Sometimes it takes a while to make a movie in Quebec. So to get financing like this on the first try, it gives Strengthen energyCartoonist and screenwriter notes.

animation wretched elephant, published in 2013 by Éditions Pow Pow, tells the story of Lucian, a demon who has lived on Earth for a large number of years. The latter is the bookseller in charge of Linguine’s used books division, which sells used cars and books.

Passionate about the details of life and written by Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway in particular, Lucian is an odd character with questionable humor who must share his duties with his colleague Daniel, his new assistant. Lucian reveals his temperament to psychologist Stefano von Strudel, who was not liked by his colleagues, but praised by his boss, a strange figure with inappropriate behavior and language.

My intention in writing this comic was to create a character and put him in situations where he would be.”weird at the end. A demon among humans is a tank salesman and a literature enthusiast. I wanted to create impossible situations, humor and discomfort… Lucien is a character who has resentments and many frustrations.

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Cover image for the 2013 comic strip “Vil et miserable” by Éditions Pow Pow

Photo: Image courtesy of Pow Pow Publishing

The challenge of film adaptation

The movie will not be animated, but real footage. Characters have been added to the story and some plots have been revised. The tone is the challenge. In the comics, the characters are really big, it’s like a series of humorous images. For the movie, it was necessary to look for and find more emotion and realism in the charactersSamuel Cantine explains.

But we obviously want to keep a slightly silly gay mind! For example, we want Lucian’s character’s costume to look a little bit cheap. And we want to recreate a universe close to ours, not forgetting that there are also demons on Earth!, he adds.

Cartoons, short films, theater and fantasy

Over the years, Samuel Kantin has put his pen aside to focus on something else, particularly by writing his web series. great sylvan In 2018, by adapting the text of the first volume of his comic strip to the stage White horse. A creative lab for this project was broadcast on the web last March, on the Duceppe Theater program.

On August 6 and 7, Samuel Kantin will present his animated short film at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal. Turtle syndromeDirectly inspired by White horse. In the film, we follow the character of Henri Castagnette, who meets his doctor, Dr. Von Strudel, with whom he will try to understand the mysterious disease that afflicts him.

On the same dates in the Fantasia Festival, there will also be a short film Mr. Kashmir (2020), authored by Samuel Cantin, presented at this year’s Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma. This movie stars Antoine Vizina, Eric Bernier, and Maxime Le Flagois.

And when are we entitled to a new comic book by Samuel Cantine? At the beginning of next year, says the author, who will then unveil Sheriff Jr. in : There is something dusty in Sorel-sur-Poussière, the first volume in a series of books.

Set in western Quebec, it is fictional and transformed from the past. The event is organized in Sorel-sur-Poussière a 12-year-old sheriff takes care of that town, and all the other characters are adults. There is also Juliet-en-Gravel in this bookSamuel Cantine says:

Although the character of Lucien Di wretched elephant They will not appear in this book, they may be in subsequent volumes. Lucian is a demon that has been on Earth for about 400 years. So my dream is to make him appear in this western world of the past as a traveling bookseller!Cartoonist and screenwriter excited about a thousand projects.