Littérature and cinéma all in one classe!!
In this class taught by cinema expert and professeur extraordinaire Nathalie Gorey, you will read the 1913 French-Canadian classic, discuss the story and learn about Quebec history, geography and culture. You will also attend a screening of the film at the Festival Champlain which takes place at the Portland Museum of Art in October.
“MARIA CHAPDELAINE”, a novel by Louis Hemon, has been taught to generations of Quebec schoolchildren. It so vividly captures the province’s rural life for young people at the turn of the last century. Think horse-drawn sleighs, thick deciduous forest, and candle-lit nights in a cabin.
Set in 1910, the story begins with the titular 17-year-old who lives with her hard-working but loving family on a remote homestead by the Péribonka River north of Lac Saint-Jean, where they work tirelessly to push back the limits of the woods that surround their property. Maria awaits the return of fur-trapper François Paradis, who has promised to marry her. But when he doesn’t show up, she has to consider two suitors: Lorenzo Surprenant, who works in the factories of Massachusetts, and Eutrope Gagnon, who’s set to clear the land he has taken near the Chapdelaines.
The novel was adapted into a film in 2021. Directed by Sébastien Pilote and starring Sara Montpetit, it is widely praised as the most visually stunning and textually faithful screen adaptation to date. Alliance Française du Maine is screening the film as part of the Festival Champlain, Maine’s only French-language film festival, and the class will attend the screening at the Portland Museum of Art. By the time we watch the movie, we will have studied the book during 4 class sessions, and there will be 3 more classes following the screening where we will discuss and compare the book and film versions.
“Canadian history has rarely, if ever, looked so sumptuous on the screen, or felt so rich.”
YOU CAN PURCHASE THE BOOK ON LIREKA