Séraphin: un homme et son péché

Too many people thought this was going to be a splashy production of les Belles Histoires du Pays d'en Haut. Unfortunately that series is long gone and the main actors are no longer with us either. The series was a laundered version of Un Homme et son Peche (sorry no accents on my keyboard) which was a brutal novel about avarice. Avarice is one of the seven deadly sins and Claude-Henri Grignon (the author) wanted to show this in the context of a rural Quebec setting. French-Canada has a mythology and Seraphin Poudrier the mean and cruel became with the help of Radio-Canada Seraphin the miserable and sometimes ok tightwad. Otherwise the series would have become unbearable, I mean, how can you love a man who deforms his wife's dead body to fit in a cheap coffin??? Grignon worked on the series so it was done with his blessing and as a result French-Canada ended up with a sanitized version that became its best-loved series ever. Indeed, to this day, anyone over 40 will fondly remember the adventures of a group of hard working French Canadians in the colonial era during the late 1890's. They were easily identifiable and very human. Naturally those who did not read the novel were shocked at the baseness of the main character Seraphin Poudrier. Jean-Pierre Masson's magistral interpretation of his character in the series was nothing short of absolute perfection. Sadly he became so typecast that he died a drunken miserable person who tried to escape this identity with very few actually realizing that he was indeed a first-class actor.

The French-Canadian society in Quebec is very selfish in a loving way and will not let its heroes go. Being so insular, it will raise its favorites to the highest level but at what cost. Anyway, the novel was a classic and must be studied to understand another view of French-Canadian rural mores. Today Quebec has become a dreary socialist third-world type society and frankly I miss the older more pictoresque place. The present day society: anti-religious, vociferously anti-English and very stupid about it, double names, silly socialism etc.. is not to my liking. Oh well...

Father Ovide, I have a confession to make. The two main reasons I went to see this movie were A) the Winnipeg Free Press gave it four stars, and B) the movie listings said "warning - sexual content." All you guys out there, can any of you relate? Heck, I'd go watch professinal lawn bowling if it had a sexual content warning.

Turns out I lucked into seeing a fine little movie. It caused me to think of the decisions we make and why we make them, and the errors we commit and how they can wind up controlling us.

It also made me very mad at Seraphin. At one point I was loudly thinking, "SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!" But then, truly he was an evil man who deserved his comeupance.

The sweet lady Donalda bugged me too. If you've made a mistake but you get a chance to get over it, wouldn't you get over it? "No, it's much better to stay put and accept your punishment." AARGH!! What's wrong with you people? But then, I'm coming from a 20th century anglo-protestant perspective, not an 18th century french-catholic one.

Neat film. I'd love to see these actors again.

Un Homme et Son Peche is not an uncommon film. The plot follows the exploits of a rural Quebec village at the turn of the century. This movie has been made before, in fact this film is based on a TV show which itself is based on a radio play.

What is unique about this film is its attention to details. The sets are impressive, built for the film. The cinemagraphy captures the natural beauty of Northern Quebec perfectly. Its as though you could touch the screen and feel the characters world.

The acting is not bad. I'm not a big fan of Roy Dupuis, but he did manage to make me feel genuine emotion for his character.

This film has become a phenomenon in Quebec, likely to become the Provinces highest grossing domestic film ever. I think this film will be remembered more as a force than for its story, but that's ok as long as it is remembered at all

The reason why «Un homme et son péché» got so much attention from the public and the medias was that the original story is a classic here in Québec. The movie is not truly a masterpiece, but it's still good to watch.

The story was changed: there is a lot more sexuality in this version and, unfortunately, some things do not make sense because all the references to the importance of religion at that time in Québec are gone.

I believe the dialogues sometimes sounded very fake, but it also depended of the actor. I think the girl that did Simone could really take some more acting courses (but it's only a small role) and Karine Vanasse also is not as superb as some said. I even found it difficult at some moments to understand what emotions she was trying to project.

The music was beautiful and the scenery magnificent!

I'd like to comment some of the actors performance: Lebeau was great, Seraphin really made me sick and it was the kind of performance that after, in each movie I see the guy, I see Seraphin, his greatest role (like when you see Audrey Tautou and you think «Amélie!»). Roy Dupuis's performance was better in this movie than in any one I saw before, he did quite a good job [for once]. Also some characters like the one Benoit Briere incarnates and also the priest were very convincing. And finally, I believe if Vanasse works a bit more, she'll end up being a quite good actress (hey, she's very young, so she has time to learn).

The ending scene with the double-meaning scream of Seraphin «C'est moé qui brûle!!!» also brings a lot of emotion and some depth.

Only very few eyes in the theater weren't wet from crying all through the movie. It's very touching and sad, and very good too. The actors are excellent and the settings are fantastic. The story in itself is very good, everyone should see it :D