Maria Chapdelaine: Latest Adaptation of Classic Quebec Novel a Visual Marvel

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A

Louis Hémon’s 1913 novel Maria Chapdelaine is a classic of French-Canadian literature, a bestseller around the world that has been adapted for the screen both in France and in Canada. In fact, this is the fourth movie based on the book, and no doubt the most beautiful.

Writer/director Sébastien Pilote has turned this piece of Quebec history into a visually stunning, deeply satisfying piece of cinema, a gorgeous period piece. Canadian history has rarely, if ever, looked so sumptuous on the screen, or felt so rich.

Lovely Maria — played by Sara Montpetit in a breakout performance — is 17, which means she’s now of marrying age. It’s 1910, and she lives with her family on a remote farm on the banks of the Péribonka River, north of Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec.

Their father Samuel, played by Sébastien Ricard, has the soul of a pioneer. He buys property, cuts the trees down (old school with an axe) and has one or two workers to help him. When the land is cleared, he sells it and moves the family further north, away from towns.

Maria is the eldest of the children still at home. Her brothers work seasonally and then return to help out when the snow melts and they, along with other workers, come help their father, and add to the joy of the family.

But the world around them is changing. People are moving from farms to towns. Not the Chapdelaines. There’s no electricity in their tidy house. When the sun goes down, the house is lit by lamps. It’s a spare and hard life, but this is a close-knit and happy family. Maria moves through her days with quiet confidence, working in and around the house with her mother Laura, played by Hèléne Florent.

Incoming suitors ensure this world will end soon for Maria. That includes a handsome, young man she’s known since childhood, rather appropriately named François Paradis, played by Émile Schneider. In some ways, he seems like her father, a bit of an adventurer. Attracted to the isolation, rugged and wild north, he’s currently working as a fur trapper and a guide, which takes him away for long periods of time. At least for now. He promises to return in the spring.

Two other young men come calling as well. One will offer her a quiet farm life, the other, a much more sophisticated comfortable life in an American city.

The question of who she will choose is the thread here. But Pilote hasn’t made it dominant. This isn’t a teen romance or a melodrama. Instead, he uses the story of Maria as a canvas, presenting a way of life from a time long gone, in its simplicity.

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Time moves slowly on this farm, and Pilote has reflected that in the film’s pace. There’s not an excess of dialogue. Maria is self-assured and quiet, and not given to showing emotions. Day to day life has a basic rhythm. When Maria stands on the porch and gazes out on the property at her father and his helpers logging in the distance, she radiates a sense of peace. It’s an almost Zen feeling. She knows that in this moment, this is exactly where she belongs.

The only change to her calm happens when her beau Émile comes to visit her. Again, Pilote has made their exchanges almost wordless. But even still, in those quiet moments, the electricity between them is palpable, enough to make you blush.

There is so much to admire about this film. The cast is note perfect. Montpetit conveys so much without dialogue. But each member of the cast is equally strong, including Antoine Olivier Pilon and Robert Naylor as the other suitors.

Pilote and his cinematographer Michel La Veaux have made every frame look like a master painting. Maria is beautiful as a Renaissance painting. She’s at one with her world and takes pleasure at her part in the family. The world around them is also beautiful, from the neat farmhouse, and scenes of the family having dinner by lamplight, to the landscape.

Laura, framed by two windows, gazes outside and they hold the shot long enough for you to contemplate that moment and the beauty in this house. Outside, the winter that, for a time, isolates the family, has never looked so beautiful.

At two-and-a-half hours, this is a long movie, but it is enchanting, evocative, and rewarding and best seen on a big screen where the beauty really shines.

Maria Chapdelaine. Directed by Sébastien Pilote. Starring Sara Montpetit, Sébastien Ricard, and Hèléne Florent. Opens September 24.