Quebec, the 1830s and 1840s. As she attends the bedside of Jérôme, her second husband, Élisabeth recalls her youth, her marriage to her first husband, Antoine, life in remote Kamouraska where he is seigneur, their love dissolving in his mental illness and cruelties, her falling in love with an American physician, Georges Nelson, and the aftermath of Antoine's violent death.
Originally weighing in at 173 minutes, this intense adaptation of Anne Hébert's novel was the most ambitious French-Canadian production to that date. Spanning 35 years and featuring over 50 characters, it opens in a small Québecois village in 1839, as Geneviève Bujold nurses her second spouse, Marcel Cuvilier, and thinks back on her turbulent past. In particular, she recalls the brutal treatment meted out by her first husband, backwoodsman Philippe Léotard, and how she was helped to dispose of him by her lover, emigré American doctor Richard Jordan. Even in the edited version, the going is occasionally ponderous, but Bujold is outstanding throughout.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Elisabeth | Geneviève Bujold |
| Nelson | Richard Jordan |
| Antoine | Philippe Léotard |
| Jérôme | Marcel Cuvelier |
| Aurélie | Suzie Baillargeon |
| Mother | Huguette Oligny |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Claude Jutra |
