The Noise of Engines

Alexandre is a young firearms instructor at the Canadian customs college in the midst of an internal investigation. The probe, led by the director of the institution, results in Alexandre being diagnosed with a sexual addiction. This diagnosis, without scientific basis, leads the director to find him unfit for duty and to place him on compulsory leave for ten days. Alexandre takes the opportunity to make a surprise visit to his mother. He has barely arrived when investigators from the Quebec Police inform him of a disturbing situation that involves him. A number of sexually explicit cartoons were found on the door of the local church, and Alexandre’s face is the only one recognizable in the drawings. DIRECTOR'S NOTES The Noise of Engines is my first feature film, and for this reason, it seems important to approach this debut with a gesture of humility. I would have liked to be a young filmmaker full of talent who made a series of successful short films and travelled the world, but that is not my story. I am the son of shopkeepers, and grew up in an agricultural region of Quebec located about twenty kilometres from the Canadian-American border. It is by working as a part-time customs agent at that border that I was able to pay for film school and save enough money to finance my short films. I didn’t like the job, and it is a part of my life that I kept hidden from my film colleagues for a long time. The Douanier Rousseau is certainly the most famous custom agent who also lead a career as an artist, but that remains a rather marginal reality. This first feature film is an opportunity for me to come back on this very singular work experience which took place at a time when I was dreaming of cinema. The Noise of Engines allows me to shed light on a part of my life that I had tried to deny. "Grégoire shows maturity beyond his years in his approach to the cinematography. There are scenes in which he chooses to let the scene feed off the quirky humour and energy of the performances, instead of camera movement and edits. These creative choices lend the film a playful vibe, complemented by the playfulness with dreams and nightmares merging with his waking state. The American filmmaker Howard Hawks preached to not try too hard with comedy, and here there’s an effortlessness to the quirky humour. Grégoire trusts us to understand why something is funny. He doesn’t pander to the crowd to try to illicit a laugh – if you don’t get it, so be it. He has a knack for taking a scene such as Alexandre’s meeting with his supervisor at the beginning of the film, and underling a serious disciplinary conversation with humour. The comedy seems to be an irreverent dismissal of authority and institutions, empowering Alexandre at any cost." (DMovies)