Millbrook Hosts North American Premiere of Upcoming Movie ‘Mlle Bottine’

Screenwriter and film producer Dominic Bergeron ’97 (known professionally as Dominic James) visited Millbrook School on Wednesday, bringing his upcoming French-Canadian film Mlle Bottine for a special pre-release showing. The Millbrook audience was the first in North America to enjoy this family-friendly movie.

Prior to the screening, Bergeron dropped in on Theater Director Elaine Lifter’s morning playwriting class. Before answering students’ questions about screenwriting and the movie industry, he inspired them with a synopsis of his journey from Millbrook to career success.

Bergeron came to Millbrook School on a hockey scholarship in the mid-1990s. An international student from Montreal, Canada, he did not intend to study the arts, focusing instead on learning English and playing hockey. However, art teacher Bill Hardy noticed Bergeron’s penchant for creativity and encouraged him to develop that side of himself.  Then, when his classmates convinced him to take a part in the school musical, he had an epiphany:

“I just started realizing that I was more excited about going to these rehearsals and working with these other artists and creative people than I was about going to the rink to play hockey—even though I had played hockey my entire life,” he told the students. “I don’t think I would be a movie producer and screenwriter today had that not happened, so I owe a lot to Millbrook and to Mr. Hardy.”

After Millbrook, Bergeron had a short stint as a professional hockey goalie before moving to Los Angeles to immerse himself in the film industry. He went on to direct movies like I’m Not There (2007), Die (2010), and Angle Mort (2011). He eventually bought a production company, Productions La Fête, and began making his own films, including Coco Ferme and Mlle Bottine. Promoting his latest film is what brought him back to Millbrook.

Capping off his productive day on campus, Bergeron joined students and faculty at the Holbrook Arts Center for a screening of Mlle Bottine in the Chelsea Morrison Theater. Students studying French were required to attend, and many more came voluntarily.

Head of School Jonathan Downs ’98, who was Bergeron’s hockey teammate and musical castmate at Millbrook, invited the filmmaker to give a brief introduction. He reminisced about his time at Millbrook, thanked Mr. Hardy—who was in attendance—for his influence, and then the lights went down.

Bergeron refers to his movies as “live-action Pixar” productions, and that style is evident in the family-friendly, character-driven Mlle Bottine. Built around lovable personalities and relatable storylines, the movie expertly strums viewers’ heartstrings, producing a full range of emotions.

Mlle Bottine is in French, but English speakers can enjoy it with subtitles. According to screenwriter and author Scott Myers, fans can also look forward to a potential English remake of the film.

Bergeron consulted Myers while writing the movie, and the two sharing what the Millbrook alumnus equated to a coach-athlete relationship. Myers shed some light on Bergeron’s vision La Fête in a recent article on Medium:

“Dominic’s business model is to produce French-language family films, then go to Hollywood or the U.K. with that IP in hand and remake each project for English-language audiences,” he wrote.

So, releasing Mlle Bottine is a huge step toward even bigger things for Bergeron and La Fête. The heartwarming movie is scheduled to hit theaters on November 29th, and the Millbrook community is excited to see what’s next.