|   CHARACTERS
[Marie Guyart-Martin]
- [Main characters] - [Other characters]
Main Characters :
In France :
CLAUDE, THE SON
At ten years old he attends his mother’s admittance to the
monastery. He will never know her affection. He will feel abandoned all of his life.
During his novitiate, he yields to homosexuality, which does not prevent him from
pronouncing his vows. He falls in love with a young woman, for whom he is the spiritual
guide. She also will take the veil.
Claude is 33 when he receives the autobiography of his mother. He is
awed by the idealization of the one he will never see again.
King Louis XIV, unable to take out his frustration with the British
takeover of New France, on Marie Guyart, will relentlessly persecute the son, one of the
great theologians of his time, as a means of retaliation against the mother.
After the death of Marie, in 1672, Claude writes a biography about
his mother. This book, La vie de... (The Life of …) will be a
" bestseller ", published over and over for more than a decade.
DOM BERNARD
This is an old character, solid and trustworthy. His authority is
unquestionable. He is often opposed to the ideas and the dreams of Marie Guyart, his
protegé, but he effects her plans by steering Madame de la Peltrie to choose her to be
the founder of the first girls’ school in Canada.
DE LA TROCHE
(Marie de Saint-Joseph)
Marie de la Troche is only fourteen when she enters the novitiate of
the Ursulines…She will change her name for Marie de Saint-Joseph
(patron saint of Canada) when chosen to make the Atlantic crossing at the age of 23.
A best friend of Marie Guyart, though younger by 15 years, she
accompanies Marie in all her assignments in spite of her chronic asthma and poor health,
which will be the cause of her courageous death at age 36.
Her kindness toward the natives is legendary. A vision of her
appeared after her death to several natives and a doctor near Quebec. She also appeared in
France to her " lady’s companion " , her nanny, a story which is
told in the first Latin history of Canada. De la Troche is one of the most engaging
characters. The mission’s success was largely due to her influence.
MADAME DE LA PELTRIE
Madeleine de Chauvigny is married to the Sieur de la Pelletery. Soon
widowed, she will commonly become known as Madame de la Peltrie.
This rich heiress has decided to invest her life and her inheritance
in the fur trade. In fact, her father having made her inheritance conditional to a
marriage, she manipulates the king’s treasurer into a marriage in name only. To avoid
the obligations of the marriage or any repercussions of her actions, she exiles herself to
Canada. Her contract with the " Cent-Associés ", the company
designated by the king to handle all Canadian business, stipulates that she must establish
a school. This is why she brings the Ursulines on a mission. Despite her affection for
Marie Guyart, the Ursulines were for Madeleine de la Peltrie nothing but a means to an
end. She will greatly hurt Marie when she leaves the young community to found Ville-Marie
(Montréal). But she will have to return to Quebec where she will build herself a house
next to the Ursuline monastery. Her house, one of the oldest in Quebec, still exists
today.
She is the same age as our heroine; they will die nearly at the same
time. Madame de la Peltrie plays a supporting role to Marie Guyart. She is
presented as being very small and frail, but strong.
In Canada :
SOKOTIS
One of the first students of the Ursuline school in Canada, young
and beautiful, she is married to the future governor of Trois-Rivières while also being
coveted by a Huguenot trapper. Too young to support a pregnancy, she dies in childbirth.
Sokotis is the humanization of the drama of colonialization; the
typical victim of culture shock. This character is inspired by the true story of Ouenda
Dinskoue.
GENEVIÈVE
Mother of Sokotis, she is the same age as Marie Guyart.
Symbolically, we don’t know her native name. Geneviève wants to be anonymous at the
Ursulines to secretly avenge the death of her daughter. She is a shaman and one of the
chiefs of the matriarchal Wendat community.
Geneviève is the character by whom the relaying of information
between the Ursuline missionaries and the native peoples is made possible.
We understand in the end how Geneviève opposes Marie Guyart’s
society to her own. Geneviève embodies the personification of native peoples just as
Marie Guyart embodies the French dream. These two women, just as the two cultures they
represent, confront and complement each other in the departure scene of Geneviève toward
the north.
|
Denis
Boivin
Short
Synopsis
Complete
Synopsis
Director's
Intent
Screenplay
Collaborators
Dionysos