By Betsy Tyson
"Little Chenier" is more than a beautifully-photographed valentine to Cajuns, who cling to their old ways and poetic expressions in the heavily-wooded bayous of Louisiana. It's an entertaining story with colorful characters and a fly-on-the-wall feel. Corrosive parent-child relationships, jealousy and hate, the abuse of power, and the need for love are threads that bind a well-plotted story that revolves around two brothers: Beaux (Johnathon Schaech) and Pemon (Frederick Koehler)Dupuis. The brothers live on a houseboat and eke out a living selling seafood and bait while Beaux looks after his slow-witted younger brother. Their father hates Pemon, as does the deputy sheriff Carl Lebauve (Jeremy Davidson), who has eloped with Beaux..s girlfriend. Good acting with special kudos to Frederick Koehler, who transforms his face and body as Pemon, and the always-interesting Clifford Collins Jr. (the morose Perry Smith in ..Capote.. and an assassin in "Traffic"), who provides comic relief as Beaux's best friend T-Boy Trahan. During the Q&A, co-writer, director Bethany Ashton Wolf, originally from Lake Charles, spoke eloquently and movingly about bringing the story to life in the steamy summer of 2005 one month before Hurricane Rita forever changed the landscape and lives of many who had opened their hearts to the cast and crew. A final scene as the credits roll emphasizes their loss.
Park City 2007
Quite possibly, the best film in Park City during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, wasn't in the Sundance Film Festival.
I fancy myself a "Film Aficionado." Like my cigar counterpart, I scour the obscure establishments across the world, searching for that rare gem. The inviolate masterpiece. The virgin Emerald void of corporate America's stamp.
By God I found one.
True to character, my interests began to pall after viewing several cliché independents trying way too hard to be independent. I found myself wandering, trying to escape the ennui brought forth by vapid cinema. This flight led me to the Main Street Mall, wherein I noticed a banner tucked away 20 feet or so behind the elevator, displaying the Park City Film Music Festival. The name sounded familiar. I felt as though it was destined, so I perused the film listings strewn beautifully, independently, across an uncelebrated table littered with film flyers.
The lady at the counter suggested "Little Chenier." What the heck, I'll try it, it starts in an hour.
The best "spur of the moment" in the history of "spur of the moments." For a film dork like me that is.
Without revealing too much, the film almost seductively dances the audience into a magical world of Cajun bayou life of monolithic reptiles and floating villages, through fluid, floating camera movements.
"Novel introduction," I thought. "Someone got lucky."
My skeptical American nature was unwilling to concede to the possibility of a random good film find. Yet, the surprises didn't stop. Characters, characters, characters. Wonderful characters with personalities as interesting as their names (Pemon, Beauxregard ,T-Boy, Sugar Man, Toothless Jimmy) are introduced. Even with such characters, the film manages to stay pertinent to the story, many film makers wouldn't be able to resist the temptation, and would delve into unrelated character tangents. The director showed great film discipline and stayed on course.
My hands began to sweat from the anticipation. Could this be "the" find? The Emerald Jewel of the Independent Film Nile?
Frame after frame of visually stunning celluloid, threatened to pull me away from my conscious search for a gem; from my constant critiquing. The careful balance between uplifting innocence, humor, and intense drama, soon found me spellbound and emotionally connected to the two main characters, Beauxregard Dupuis (Johnathon Schaech, That Thing You Do ), and his mentally handicapped brother, Pemon (Fred Koehler , Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood ), deliver a cathartic performance of tragedy and triumph, as they fight to save each other from the vituperative actions of their jealous rival and town sheriff, Carl LeBauve (Jeremy Davidson).
All the players were amazing, and I did recognize a few faces: Chris Mulkey ( Broken Trails, Twin Peaks ), Marshall Bell ( Capote ), Clifton Collins Jr. ( Capote, Traffic, Tigerland ), and Isabella Hoffman.
The film stayed true to its guts with an equally surprising, jaw-dropping seat-clinching ending.
I found my Emerald. My unmarked Cuban.
Just remember, when "Little Chenier" comes to a theater near you...
...I found it first. Well, me and the other audience members, that is. "Little Chenier" was given the Audience Award for Best Film Saturday night at the festival's award ceremony. It will still be my own Emerald find when I tell the story in smaller circles, of course.
Patrick Sweeney
Tempe, AZ
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October 21, 2006
Price Savoie
Austin, Texas
Little Chenier could be the only movie to ever realistically capture the intricate beauty of Cajun life. The film brings the viewer into a previously unexplored world of floating houses, rustic bayou occupations, dangerous reptiles, and captivating Cajun accents. Being a Southwest Louisiana Cajun myself, I feel the accuracy in which Little Chenier portrays Cajun life is impeccable. The characters are multifaceted and uniquely riveting. I feel this film will supplant the reign of Belizaire the Cajun as the best Cajun film of all time.
As if the deliverance of a never before seen culture was not enough, the film manages to generate a story line that could hold its own in any setting. Be it a small Cajun bayou town or New York City.
The actors deliver. They are commanding, fluid, and potent. The main character Beauxregard (Johnathon Schaech), is a young Cajun man raising his mentally handicapped and mischievously jocose younger brother, Pemon (Fred Koehler). The love shared between the two main characters is poignant, pungent, and at times precarious, as a labyrinth of complex feelings is woven. The elements of corrupt law enforcement officers, a model sheriff (Chris Mulkey), unfortunate events, a broken father (Marshall Bell), a lost mother, a loyal friend (Clifton Collins Jr.), a nemesis (Jeremy Davidson), and a girl in the middle (Tamara Braun), intertwine and culminate with a surprise ending.
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, running through a gamut of emotions that included suspense, awe, empathy, sadness, laughter, anger, romance, and pride. This is a must see film.
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by Mike Massie
Little Chenier (rhymes with beer) is a vastly original and poignant tale of honest men caught in a desperate situation. Phenomenal acting by a brilliant ensemble cast combined with beautifully scripted dialogue and meticulous character development proves that creative and thought-provoking cinema isn't dead. Quite deservingly, Little Chenier won Best Picture at the 2007 Phoenix Film Festival and is easily one of the best films of the year.
Beauxregard Dupuis (Johnathon Schaech) and his mentally handicapped brother Pemon (Fred Koehler) live in the sweltering Louisiana swamps near Cameron Parish in a tiny strip of land known as Little Chenier. Their mother abandoned them shortly after Pemon's birth, and their father is constantly away entertaining various women and delusions of grandeur. Leading the simple lives of fishermen, selling bait at their local shop, Beaux and Pemon really only have each other. The local sheriff (Chris Mulkey) admires the two boys, but his son, Carl (Jeremy Davidson), despises them due to his wife (Tamara Braun) who is still in love with Beaux. When the sheriff is tragically killed in a gas station heist, Carl takes over and ensures that Beaux and Pemon will have a difficult time staying out of trouble with the law.
Within the first few moments of the film, you can tell that it is going to be grand. The first line of dialogue, heavily coated in a Louisiana accent, with bits of French mixed in, immediately denotes Little Chenier as different and tantalizing. And the first scene that introduces the handicapped Pemon foreshadows a deep and emotional story, full of love and tragedy. Within the seemingly simple lives of our two heroes lies a complex mesh of relationships, affairs, contempt and hatred that all eventually collide. The story is carried out with such precision it is obvious that director Bethany Wolf is familiar with the tool of character development and how to evoke emotion and connection with the most unusual of individuals. Long, lingering shots of facial expressions dominate the scenes in which words cannot be used, and yet full comprehension is universal. She masterfully examines the often painful and awkward situations involving loved ones who are mentally deficient, being sure to also include the right dose of humor and tranquility. Elegantly shot scenes of intense emotion permeate the film, including Beaux diving into the swamp to recover a picture of his mother, and Beaux and Pemon's hilarious conversation about fornication; so many scenes are carefully crafted and sure to stick with you.
The acting is sensational by everyone in the cast. Johnathon Schaech plays Beaux with conviction and charm and despite his character flaws is consistently a hero and immediately captures the hearts of the audience. Pemon is one of the best movie characters in quite some time, and like Billy Bob Thornton's Slingblade, brings heartwarming complexity to the tale of friendships and prejudices instilled by his tragic condition. Supporting actors T-Boy (Clifton Collins Jr.), Jeremy Davidson and Tamara Braun also wonderfully portray their compelling characters. Winning the "Best Ensemble Acting" Award as well as the "Special Jury Prize for Acting Achievement" (Fred Koehler), Little Chenier displays some of the finest performances in quite some time.
So many conflicts present themselves to our hapless heroes, and several are unable to reach a resolution by the time the film concludes. But the cut-off point the director chose to use couldn't have been better. For it is not the future consequences that neither these survivors nor the audience must face, but the present unpredictable problems that they must painfully resolve. Easily the best film of the 2007 Phoenix Film Festival, Little Chenier is also the greatest film so far this year. And while the year may be young, I will be delighted to see this film reach a wide distribution so that others can share in the joys of this heartfelt masterpiece.
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by Noah Bonaparte Pais
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Little Chenier's second story begins in its final frames. The award-winning independent film, shot in the heart of Cajun country and opening Friday in New Orleans, closes with two images of a rural back road that might as well be negatives of one another. In the first, a production clip tagged 'August 2005," a young woman walks beneath the verdant foliage canopy of a Louisiana live oak. The second, a photo taken in early October, shows the same scene days after being ravaged by Hurricane Rita: the earth scorched a barren sepia, the leafless trees a gnarled mess. For first-time feature filmmaker Bethany Ashton Wolf and her brother, co-writer Jace Johnson, the purpose of the project shifted with the wind. The meditative, emotionally charged drama follows two beleaguered siblings set in a small Cameron Parish fishing community, but the film crews left Little Chenier in late August 2005, beating Katrina's landfall by less than a week. More than a movie, their film is a last look at a now-devastated region.
'We went in with a cinematic responsibility to a dying culture," Wolf says. 'Cajuns haven't been properly represented in cinema. Either they're not represented, or they're misrepresented or made fun of. We didn't know while we were shooting that we were making history, a piece of living history. ... It went from a cinematic responsibility to a moral obligation to these people."
'They're fighters," Johnson says of the many area residents who assisted with production and subsequently were left homeless by Rita. 'As with [New Orleans residents], a lot of them evacuated to Houston and never came back. ... They have been neglected. They have no media spotlight on them at all " people don't even know they exist. We're hoping this film will help with that."
Early feedback has been very positive. Little Chenier is widely being hailed as a definitive work, the finest film representation of slow, simple life in south Louisiana since 1986's Belizaire the Cajun. The picture has been championed on the festival circuit, where it has received awards for acting (recognizing Frederick Koehler's uncanny portrayal of the mentally handicapped Pemon Dupuis), for direction and, at the Phoenix Film Festival, for Best Picture of 2007.
'Before we wrote it," Wolf says, 'we wondered, "How do we educate people about Cajun culture without hitting them over the head with it?' We wanted to create a beautiful fictional story, yet have the culture permeate through it."
'Bethany and I, both being from [Lake Charles, La.], we didn't want to be embarrassed by it," Johnson adds. 'You watch Louisiana films and it's like, "That's not how you eat a crawfish.' [The characters] are fishermen, so I wanted them to be able to cast an open-face reel, not some Snoopy pole."
The cast, which includes veteran actors " but nonLouisianans " Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do!), Clifton Collins Jr. (Capote) and Koehler (Domino), had its hands full while acclimating. Familiar regional challenges like triple-digit temperatures, Jurassic mosquitoes, storm evacuations and the task of filming half the picture on water hindered the six-week summertime shoot. But at times, says Koehler, a native of New York, the boot-camp conditions also helped.
'The unseen character is the bayou," he says. 'When it's 110 degrees and 99 percent humidity, you can't ignore it for long. And when it's that present in the script, it really does help. If we were out on the boat acting like it was hot and it was really 72 degrees, it would've been much harder."
The accents provided a different kind of challenge. Determined to avoid another Dennis Quaid-in-The Big Easy debacle, Wolf and Johnson hired Bernelle Ezelle, their high school linguistics teacher, to tutor the actors in the curled colloquialisms of Cajun French.
'We had a lot of locals there, and if Bernelle wasn't around, it was easy just to hang out with them and talk and pick it up," Collins says. 'That was fun, to be a part of their community, a part of their culture."
Wolf, whose family founded a charity called Rita Remembered to assist those who lost their homes to the storm, hopes Little Chenier has the same effect on larger audiences. 'That's the most beautiful thing across the country " or internationally, sitting in a London theater " with that end shot. You can say it all you want, but when you actually see it, it speaks volumes."
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'Little Chenier' survives hurricane, opens Friday
January 15, 2008
The Louisiana-made drama "Little Chenier" was shot before and after Hurricane Rita in Calcasieu, Cameron, Vermillion, Allen and Jefferson Davis parishes. The movie's locations were leveled when the hurricane ripped through 31 days after principal photography wrapped.
Reshoots were finished in May 2006. The film is dedicated to people who last their homes and land to the storm.
"Little Chenier" will be ushered out to theaters in Louisiana and Mississippi on Friday. Locally, it will play at the Regal Cinemas Louisiana Boardwalk Stadium 14.
Short largely in the swamps, the film is a billed as a Cajun story about a man who struggles to protect his handicapped brother from an abusive sheriff. It stars Johnathon Schaech ("Road House 2: Last Call"), Fred Koehler ("Domino") and Clifton Collins ("Capote").
Turn to Friday's Preview section to read a review and an interview with director Bethany Ashton Wolf.
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