In 2009, Lyne Charlebois broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to win the Jutra for Best Director for Borderline, based on the novels Borderline and La Brèche by Marie-Sissi Labrèche, but…
“Why haven’t I made a film since then? asks the filmmaker. I’ve had four rejections in 16 years, one of which stuck in my throat. It’s boring, but I know there are a lot of us who apply to make films, so that’s what it is. Thank God, for Tell me why these things are so beautiful, we had a go straight away from the institutions. It’s not easy, but it’s a privilege, making a film in Quebec. I can never say thank you enough. »
It is thanks to Roger Frappier, producer of Borderline, that Lyne Charlebois read the Biological Letters (presented by Yves Gingras, Boréal, 2018), by Brother Marie-Victorin (1885-1944), and, before they were published , Letters to Brother Marie-Victorin (presented by Yves Gingras and Graig Moyes, Boréal, 2019), by Marcelle Gauvreau (1907-1968). Wishing to remain faithful to their word and avoid the film being entirely carried by off-camera voices, the director transformed the content of their correspondence into dialogue.
She was also inspired by Science, culture and nation (texts chosen and presented by Yves Gingras, Boréal, 2019) for certain scenes.
Not being a fan of biographical films, Lyne Charlebois wanted to move away from the genre by establishing a parallel between yesterday and today by delivering her personal reflections on love and intimacy. This is how in addition to playing brother Marie-Victorin, born Conrad Kirouac, and Marcelle Gauvreau, Alexandre Goyette and Mylène Mackay play Antoine and Roxane, two actors who had a brief affair who film Conrad and Marcelle under the direction of a director (Marianne Farley), who is “a bit” the alter ego of Lyne Charlebois.
“When she says she doesn’t think they slept together, I think the same thing,” says the filmmaker. Anyway, for me it doesn’t matter whether they fucked or not. In the last two years there are no more letters; it is not known whether there were any or whether they were thrown away. It’s ambiguous and it’s intentional. I didn’t want to make a statement and I wanted to invent as little as possible, so my thoughts went through the contemporary and not through Marie-Victorin and Marcelle because that wouldn’t have been them. There was a certain loyalty, a respect that I held dear. »
“It’s still incredible that we don’t know at all who Marcelle Gauvreau is, that it’s not taught at school. We are still in an era where we are familiar with the term witch… She studied medicinal plants, she chose not to marry in order to continue her studies; At the time, it was not an easy choice to make. She is the first French-speaking woman to have obtained a master’s degree in natural sciences in Quebec. She made the index and participated in the research of La flora laurentienne. It feels good to highlight it,” explains Mylène Mackay, who played, in a completely different register, the botanist in The Forgotten Flowers (2019), by André Forcier, alongside Yves Jacques.
Despite her master’s degree, Brother Marie-Victorin’s assistant had to be content with a secretary’s salary… “It is unacceptable in our eyes today, but everything she experienced at that time, the way how Marie-Victorin treated her, that is to say as an equal, testifies to the avant-garde of this man. She is a woman who blossomed through contact with Marie-Victorin and who was able to do things that she probably would not have done without him. I am convinced that without this woman, without the love they had, without this need to sublimate this love, this physical attraction which was super strong, I don’t think he would have been interested in her. sexuality,” argues Alexandre Goyette.
In addition to a platonic love and their love for God, the famous botanists shared a great love for nature. To capture all of its beauty and fragility, Lyne Charlebois insisted on Roger Frappier working with director André Dufour, her great friend with whom she had filmed the series Conséquences and Eaux turbulentes.
“It had been 16 years since I had made a film, it was stressing me out and I wanted to make cinema, not a TV series. With a small camera, we took lots of shots on Mount Royal, at the Botanical Garden, on Anticosti Island. André also went to film in Mingan – it was Marie-Victorin who invented the word Minganie. For me, it was very important to go to Mingan, it’s so beautiful! There is also Christine Simard who filmed several takes in Bas-Saint-Laurent. We have all the seasons and all the Laurentian flora, which still exists, but which needs a lot of love. I was very happy that my film was endorsed by Yves Gingras. I think I tried to put into this film all the gentleness that I am capable of,” declares the director.
“We recognize Lyne’s rebellion in her desire to make this film in our era that moves extremely fast, where we consume relationships quickly. It’s a slow and contemplative film, a mix of literature, visual art, poetry, where the images dance and whose main character is nature. It’s an unconventional film on every level. It’s unique and original, it’s very Lyne,” believes Mylène Mackay, whose parents, gardener Yves Gagnon and herbalist Diane Mackay, are extras in Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful.
“It’s a very free film which praises slowness and gentleness. There is something in Lyne’s approach that is like a response to Borderline. It’s really diametrically opposed. And that’s really interesting in a creative approach to see how two exploded and strong works, each in their own way, respond to each other,” concludes Alexandre Goyette.