Original Princess
Sat. Feb. 13, 7:00pm. “Ever since The Sound of Music, movies, music and nuns are a match made in heaven. In her new film La passion d’Augustine, Léa Pool doesn’t let Céline Bonnier frolic quite as much as Julie Andrews, but the Swiss-Québécoise director manages to strike a chord nonetheless.
“Bonnier plays Mère Augustine, a circumspect sister with a closely guarded lighter side. She runs an all-girls boarding school in rural Quebec in the midst of the Quiet Revolution. The year is 1965. The province is in the midst of social upheaval and the longstanding influence of religion is fading fast. While God plays an important role in Augustine’s school, music reigns supreme. Piano is her instrument of choice, and her gifted students routinely take home prizes in provincial competitions.
“As Quebec introduces the public school system, Augustine’s school is under threat of closing. Enter Alice (Lysandre Ménard), Augustine’s rebellious teenage niece, a piano prodigy who arrives flashing the peace sign, improvising jazzy flourishes to classical standards and questioning authority at every turn. Needless to say, she ruffles some feathers.
“For Augustine, the girl provides challenges on multiple levels. Her musical freedom is closely linked to emotional and social freedoms, which the nun left behind long ago. As a result, Augustine must confront painful moments from her past, as well as the fast-changing reality of the present.
“Pool doesn’t resort to easy answers. She resists the temptation of pitting young against old. While that tension exists in the film, even driving the action at times, it is presented more as the natural outcome of a period of transition. The nuns aren’t caricatured as stuffy old marms, but rather as complex characters confronted with great change.
“Pool pulls off a neat trick with La passion d’Augustine. What could have been a simple story of teenage revolt against the stuffy adult world turns into a nuanced tale of generational shift, personal transformation and the galvanizing power of music.” - Montreal Gazette
Heart Matters is held annually to commemorate the lives of two local educators, Michael Bird & Tim Walker, both of whom died of heart disease. During the month of February, please consider donating to the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation, or the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance.