Among authors who didn’t live to witness their own success, Louis Hemon is a particularly unfortunate case — his novel “Maria Chapdelaine” was published in 1913, the same year as his train-struck d…
Among authors who didn’t live to witness their own success, Louis Hemon is a particularly unfortunate case — his novel “” was published in 1913, the same year as his train-struck death. Thus he didn’t see it become an early Quebec-lit classic taught to generations of schoolchildren, published in translation worldwide or adapted into many other media over the past century.
The source material’s cultural significance and a talented director’s rising rep will place it among the year’s more significant releases within Canada, But this “Maria Chapdelaine” lacks the spark that might’ve given it wings as an attractive art-house or quality-television item abroad. Unbeknownst to her kin, Maria has run across a longtime acquaintance in town: Francois Paradis , who on occasion returns to the area of his upbringing but prefers a trapper’s transient life, hunting and trading with Native peoples. Despite Francois’ infrequent appearances, something is brewing between him and Maria, who’s now of marriageable age. Then again, there’s the closer-to-home, more reliable future dangled by the Chapdelaines’ sole neighbor, young bachelor farmer Eutrope Gagnon .
As in Jan Troell’s “The Emigrants” and its sequel half a century ago, there is considerable reward in the filmmakers’ scrupulous attention to the details of settler self-sufficiency. But those movies had great actors absorbing us into the inner lives of “simple,” inarticulate yet compelling characters. It is a measure of “Maria Chapdelaine’s” relative failure on that score that when death strikes here, what should have terrible poignancy somehow carries little emotional force.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Dior’s Night at the Museum With Lorde & Maria Grazia ChiuriThe new exhibition features hundreds of bar jackets, tea-length skirts, fantastical gowns, accessories, sketches, and photographs that span Dior's 75-plus years as a top maison
Read more »
Zero + Maria Cornejo Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear CollectionZero + Maria Cornejo Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection, runway looks, beauty, models, and reviews.
Read more »
Zero + Maria Cornejo Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear CollectionZero + Maria Cornejo Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear collection, runway looks, beauty, models, and reviews.
Read more »
Well, that didn't last long. Klaus Biesenbach is out at MOCA, days after new hireKlaus Biesenbach, who recently shifted from director to artistic director, will lead Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie and future Museum of the 20th Century.
Read more »
ANEST COLLECTIVE’s clothes are inspired by light and shadowsReferencing mid-century architecture and abstract imagery too, their garments exist at the intersection between art and everyday life.
Read more »
The Coal Miners' Wives Keeping a Strike Alive in AlabamaThe women in miners' lives is a labor trope that reaches back centuries, but these women are on the front lines of the struggle here and now.
Read more »