One Sunday in January 2003, at Ste-Adèle, the temperature 25 degrees below zero. Standing in front of Claude-Henri Grignon's gravestone in the shadow of a fir tree pruned into the shape of an umbrella, my feet buried in snow, hands in pockets and nose braving the North wind, I try to penetrate the mystery of the author of Un homme et son péché. I'm looking for a link between him, his heroes, Binamé's film and ourselves. All I get by way of an answer are dates, names, words carved in the black granite: 1894-1976, C.H. Grignon, Valdombre¹, pamphleteer and novelist.

Ste-Adèle cemetery is situated a little way out from the centre of the village, far from the church. It is surrounded by a cedar hedge, and the rounded Laurentide mountains stand out on the horizon. It smells of The North. What we Montreal people affectionately call The North, stretching from St-Jérôme to Mont-Laurier. The scent here is distinctive: it smells of evergreens, sharp and spicy. It smells of water too. Visible or hidden, swift-flowing or placid, frozen, crystalline, it perfumes the Northern air according to the season.

The villages of the region follow the topography of the land, be it the length of a river, the perimeter of a lake, or nestled in the hollow of a small valley. So is it with Ste-Adèle, rising on the weathered flank of a Laurentian mountain, its little houses spreading down the mountainside then around Lake Rond. But it's been a long while since the bucolic spirit of the original village disappeared. Ste-Adèle now moves to the rhythm of the 21st century tourist industry. The atmosphere which permeates Grignon's novel manifestly belongs to another age.

The biting cold and the humidity overcoming my determination, I left Valdombre to sleep with his secrets. I had to look elsewhere for the answers to my questions.

Where did this remarkable link come from? What was it, lying dormant within us, that Binamé had awakened? Where did the fascination for this remake come from? For although drawing its sources from the twilight of the 19th century, it is obvious that this new cinematic version is an experience that belongs entirely to Quebec in the 3rd millennium. To understand its impact I decided to retrace the course of the film since its announcement. The course which we have followed together.

The Advent of Un homme et son péché

It was during the summer of 2001, at least several months before the start of filming, that we learned of Charles Binamé's ambitious plan: to direct the third film version of Un homme et son péché (the first two having been produced in 1949 and 1950). To attempt the masterwork of Quebec writer Claude-Henri Grignon was no trivial matter. For thirty years, from the autumn of 1939 to the spring of 1970, Quebec had followed the everyday life of Grignon's characters. Thanks to their voices coming through on the radio, then, with the arrival of television, their facial features, the people of Quebec identified with them. Down the years an unbreakable link was forged between the public and the characters.

¹ Valdombre: Pseudonym adopted by Claude-Henri Grignon at the age of 26 when he was writing as a journalist and pamphleteer.

Aware of the importance of this link, Binamé made a very wise decision and took a lucky gamble with his film. He looked at the literary work in a new light, incorporating two new trump cards: the characters from the radio and TV series who were not in the novel and the addition of the key element of all strong dramatic works: a love story between two souls whose destiny is determined to separate them. Thus he remained faithful to the spirit of the book while adding new dimensions: virtue versus vice, freedom running into walls of obscurantism and submission, Alexis' dream persecuted by Séraphin's greed, and between the two men, Donalda's virginal love struggling desperately for survival. Binamé had everything in hand to paint a great picture. All he needed was the eye of a photographic artist, which he found in the person of Jean Lépine, a score to lift the emotions, which he got from Michel Cusson, and actors able to rise to such a challenge, which were provided, on an incomparable set, by several great names from our native acting profession.

 The choice of actors

Binamé introduced his actors at a press conference in the early days of September 2001. It is quite rare for this to be done for a Quebecois film, but the project had already aroused great interest, and everyone was dying to know who was going to play which role, from Laloge Snr. to Jambe-de-bois, from Father Ovide to Nanette. We were all involved as Binamé was going to invoke our memories.

The revelation of his casting was a happy moment. Pierre Lebeau as Séraphin, one couldn't have wished for better. A great actor in a legendary role - this was obvious. Karine Vanasse as Donalda seemed a bit of a risky choice. Karine had been wonderful in Léa Pool's Emporte-moi but bearing in mind the calibre of the cast, I thought it was quite a heavy responsibility for a 17 year old girl to take on such a leading role. However, knowing Binamé's talent, I had faith in him. Roy as Alexis Labranche was in the nature of things. Roy had an obligatory rendezvous with this character. The exact date and time had never been set, but ever since he had embodied Ovila Pronovost a decade earlier, he had paved the way which inevitably would lead to Alexis. Ovila was a man of the woods, a man in love with adventure and freedom, as legendary as Claude-Henri Grignon's Alexis and Germaine Guévremont's Survenant had been before him, and like them he appeared to be descended from these men who had been forged by nature. Men who rebelled against the authority of other men, admired but feared by their suspicious community, a community which they often left because they could not conform to the rules that govern it. Alexis is the mature Ovila, had not Love, responsibilities, the pressures of life, and a great sensitivity turned him into a man torn between his dream and his family.

Beside Alexis, Séraphin and Donalda, a panoply of actors were to play Grignon's characters. Rémy Girard as Laloge Snr, Robert Brouillette and Céline Bonnier respectively as Donalda's brother Bidou and his wife Nanette, Benoit Brière as Jambe-de-bois, Normand Chouinard as the curate, Robert Lalonde as the doctor and many others. A joyous band. During the press conference they all had a gleam of pleasure in their eyes and impatience in their hearts. This entire cinematographic venture augured decidedly well. The start of filming was scheduled for the week beginning September 10.