Sites and sets or the Art of supporting characters...

Filming locations of Les Filles de Caleb was the work of Jocelyn Joly, Luc Martineau was responsible for the settings and Richard Grégoire for the music soundtrack.

The series was filmed around St-Jean-des-Piles in the Mauricie region nearby the villages where the novel's action took place.

The region is knowned for its forests, rivers, lakes and its skies. During summer, if weather is nice, the Mauricie will dress up to look its best, wearing deep penetrating greens and blues that will make even Meditarranean skies to blemish. Those greens and blues will mix together melting away in strong hues changing at each detour of the landscape, celebrating Nature's strength and omnipresence. It is a peaceful land, yet powerful.

Peaceful because of its placid lakes, the serenity of its forest and of course because of the St.Maurice river, sometimes flowing slowly or rushing down furiously. A very important river for men who depended on her to earn a living. A strong land, untamable, a gigantic forest at the doorstep of civilization. During a trip last summer to Shawinigan, I have witnessed this phenomenon while on a top of the 115 meters tower. The town is besieged with a rich vegetation, like a leafy tide invading the city. It is very impressive. The land seems to give man just enough space and not an inch more. Ovila Pronovost comes from this land, an original product, a replica of the soul of the land.

I had also the privilege of browsing through the sets of Les filles de Caleb. First in 1994, four years after the series. I have spent my summer vacations in Emilie's and Ovila's country, en route to the St.Maurice Wildlife Reserve where we had leased a chalet for one week. So we paid a visit to Emilie's Village. Unfortunately, it has now closed down. The Village's organizers had bought the sets from the TV series to install them in a location nearby the original settings, giving the appearance of reality to the scenes as shown in my pictures on this page of the Pronovost house and also of the school..

The sets in this series are real, real buildings, not trompe-l'oeil. So it was with great emotion that I visited each building, each room,admiring each object, searching for recognition, an approval, a smile from each treasure that I found. As an added pleasure, Richard Grégoire original music was playing. This was a great idea as I am also sensible to music as to the beauty of objects and nature. For long hours, I have enjoyed walking around the sites, that were still full of life, like they were asleep during the absence of Émilie, Ovila and the others.

But it is in the schoolhouse where I lived the greatest emotion. Sitting down at Ovila's desk I could finally measure the classroom space. It was a really small room...and I still wonder how they have achieved filming the Christmas scene in such a small area.

Being there was adding another dimension and a most important one that cinema or television can not offer. The smell and the touch...The schoolhouse had this good old wooden smell, which is still living, breathing, shrinking in the winter and expanding when summer comes...

The perfume of the pages of an old book, of a fire lit may times in the turtle stove, was filling the room along with delicate aromas, coming from outside, from the bushes and scents from flowers in the surrounding fields.

Again I was struck with a great emotion when going up the stairs to visit Émilie's bedroom. While climbing up slowly, I had the vision of Ovila, doing just the same, very slowly and quietly, to meet Émilie who he had not seen for two years. He finally reached the top of the stairs and longing for her, he sighed " How beautiful are you" and Émilie, coming out of the bath tub, half naked, replied: " What are you doing here?" and Ovila, walking towards her, whispered : " I am coming to happiness..." Standing in front of the bed I could see them. I have adored that scene, for sure the most passionate of the entire series.

Marina Orsini says in a book that this scene was for her, one of the finest experience of her filming career:

"It was a great moment, everything that was said from that moment (referring to Ovila's line: "I am coming to happiness") and everything that has happened after was real poetry! So extraordinary! It is the first real contact and true expression of the love between Émilie and Ovila. For sure one of the most beautiful scenes of my career."Marina Orsini, Collection en plein coeur, 1996.p.83-85

Plenty of intensity in those moments, starting when Émilie whispers: "Please O God, let him come..." the look in her eyes praying for that moment creates a strong atmosphere when her desire will reach its peak with the bed scene. Then in the next scene, we will see her getting dressed while Ovila, leaning against the wall, near the staircase, is contemplating her beauty, Roy breathing deeply trying to slow down Ovila's heart beat.

During their conversation, Ovila will look at her straight in her eyes, being hypnotized by his happiness, his face enlighted near ecstasy. Finally, he will lower his eyes, after Émilie asked him to turn around so she could dress up. But he will come back to her, subdued by Émilie dark look which was wrapping him up.

The love scene that followed is beyond words. Their passion is rubbing off the screen, and only someone who once lived this experience could feel the intensity of the scene; it is totally Roy, absolutely true and unique. They both were starving of each other and only Émilie's will power could stop their outburst. Such a restrained impulse left both of them breathless, lying down side by side on the bed, laughing while trying to catch up their breath and to relax their bodies.

We now know why such a difficult love will survive for such a long time. The passion will be greater than their love or at least of their own understanding. Much later, Émilie will admit it to Henri Douville, who knew how much they were in love, by replying to Henri: "Our love is bigger than us" confirming that she was disturbed by this love...by her obsession for this man. Ovila was in the same predicament, as tormented and also unable to resist.