The film will be released on June 21 Tell me why these things are so beautifulwhich highlights the delicious correspondence between Brother Marie-Victorin and Marcelle Gauvreau.
Published by Boréal in 2018, the book Biological letters: Research on human sexuality revealed a little-known aspect of the founder of the Montreal Botanical Garden. The latter addresses his assistant, the scientist Marcelle Gauvreau, and exchanges thoughts with her on human sexuality, which he would like to be more open and more uninhibited. Surprising for the time, this correspondence testifies to the avant-garde of the authors and of course, to a deep love for each other, although this union was impossible. Letters to Brother Marie-Victorin, which constitutes Marcelle Gauvreau’s responses, was published the following year. To mark the release of the film which is inspired by it, Éditions du Boréal will publish the complete two books in mid-June under the title Letters on human sexuality.
If we know more about Brother Marie-Victorin, thanks in particular to his Laurentian flora, we know less about Marcelle Gauvreau. However, she is the first French-speaking Canadian woman to obtain her master’s degree in natural sciences. A naturalist, botanist, journalist and popularizer of science, she was keen, throughout her life, to share her knowledge and democratize science.
The film Tell me why these things are so beautiful is directed by Lyne Charlebois, whose last film, Borderline, dates back around fifteen years. She wanted to transpose the love that united these two exceptional beings, playing on the eras as well as the characters. We can only assume that the film, shot in particular in Minganie, will pay homage to nature as well as to the passion, curiosity and intelligence of Brother Marie-Victorin and Marcelle Gauvreau.
While you wait to go to the cinema, take a look at the film’s trailer here.
