''Kamouraska'' is a 1973 French-Canadian film directed and written by

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

, based on the 1970 novel of the same name by

Anne Hébert Anne Hébert (pronounced in French) (August 1, 1916 – January 22, 2000), was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Awards, Governor General's Award, three times, twice for fiction and once fo ...

. At the time of its release it was the most expensive film ever made in Canadian history. It won four Canadian Film Awards, but was unsuccessful at the box office.

Plot

The film is set in rural

Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

in the 1830s. Élisabeth at the deathbed of her second husband, Jérôme Rolland, is recounting her past, which is conveyed through a series of flashbacks. She was first married to Antoine, the brutish ''seigneur'' of Kamouraska, and fell in love with a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

American doctor, Georges Nelson. He murdered Antoine. At her trial for complicity in the killing, Élisabeth is acquitted. She marries Jérôme to save her honour.

Cast

Geneviève Bujold Geneviève Bujold (; born July 1, 1942) is a Canadian actress. For her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the period drama film '' Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969), Bujold received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film cr ...

as Élisabeth d'Aulnières *

Richard Jordan Robert Anson Jordan Jr. (July 19, 1937 – August 30, 1993), known professionally as Richard Jordan, was an American actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays. His films ...

as Georges Nelson * Philippe Léotard as Antoine Tassy * Marcel Cuvelier as Jérôme Rolland * Huguette Oligny as The Mother of Élisabeth * Camille Bernard as The Mother of Antoine * Janine Sutto as Tante * Olivette Thibault as Tante * Marie Fresnières as Tante * Suzie Baillargeon as Aurélie * Colette Cortois as Florida * Gigi Duckett as Anne-Marie * Marcel Marineau as Greffier, Médecin * Len Watt as Le Gouverneur

Production

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

agreed to direct the film on the condition that

played the lead role. The film based on

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

was directed and written by Jutra and

Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the Nationa ...

was the directory of cinematography. The French-Canadian co-production was shot from 1–29 March and 26 April to 30 June 1972. Three hours and forty minutes worth of footage was shot for the film. The film had a budget of $750,000, but cost $905,000 () to make. 75% of the funding came from Canada and 25% came from France. It was the most expensive film made in Canada at that point. Jutra's first cut of the film was three hours and forty minutes long and his second cut was two hours and thirty minutes long. Renée Lichtig replaced him as editor and Jutra praised her work.

Release

The film was previewed in

Kamouraska, Quebec Kamouraska () is a municipality (Quebec), municipality on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. It is part of the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality, Regional County Municipality of Ka ...

, and premiered at Théâtre Saint-Denis in Montreal on 29 March 1973. It was distributed by France Film in Quebec and

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

in Europe. ''

The Death of a Lumberjack ''The Death of a Lumberjack'' () is a 1973 Canadian drama film directed and co-written by Gilles Carle. The film was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Plot A young woman ( Carole Laure) from rural Quebec comes to Montreal to find out ...

'' was selected over ''Kamouraska'' as Canada's submission to the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, but was shown at Cannes through a special screening by the French Association of Film Critics. It was the first time the organization held a special screening since its showing of ''

Hiroshima mon amour (, lit. , ) is a 1959 romantic drama film directed by French director Alain Resnais and written by French author Marguerite Duras. Resnais' first feature-length work, it was a co-production between France and Japan, and documents a series o ...

'' in 1959. The television rights to the film were sold to the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

for $100,000, the highest amount for a Canadian film at that time. It was shown by the CBC on 6 September 1980. The theatrical version of the film was 124 minutes while the 1983 television version was 173 minutes.

Reception

The film was unsuccessful at the box office. The film was poorly reviewed by critics. Henry Herx gave it a mixed review in his ''Family Guide to Movies on Video'': " e movie captures a vanished era, has excellent acting and the beauty of its settings but its story of hot passion in a cold climate is heavily melodramatic."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', stated that the actors were not "able to give emotional urgency to material that depends so heavily on our believing in these characters and sharing their sense of sin and guilt". The film won multiple awards at the Canadian Film Awards, but Bujold was the only person from Quebec to accept an award.

Accolades

References

Works cited

* * * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamouraska 1973 films Canadian drama films Films directed by Claude Jutra Films set in Quebec Films shot in Quebec Films based on Canadian novels Films set in the 1830s 1970s French-language films 1970s English-language films 1970s Canadian films Films scored by Maurice Le Roux English-language Canadian films French-language Canadian films