Cinema
Evangeline
Synopsis
Grand-Pré, in Acadia, 1755. Évangéline and Gabriel celebrate their betrothal. The next day, the English shut the men up in the church, then deport the inhabitants and set fire to the village; Gabriel is put on a ship without her. Exiled in her turn, Évangéline searches for him for years across America: on the bayous of Louisiana, where their boats pass without their seeing each other, at the home of Basil, Gabriel's father, whom he has just left, then as far as a mission and into the forests of Michigan.
Context
The film is based on Longfellow's poem about the deportation of the Acadians, begun in 1755, which scattered about ten thousand of them. The screenplay is by Marguerite Marquis; Laura Lyman and John F. Carleton, two Americans, play the betrothed couple. Filming took place in Nova Scotia, at Grand-Pré and in the Annapolis Valley, on the sites of the beginning of the story, and in Quebec. The film was released in February 1914, in New York and then in Halifax, in five reels. No print has survived: it is known only from the press of the time and a few photographs.
Who it is for
A lost work, which can no longer be seen; Longfellow's poem from which it is drawn is still read and gives the story.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first fiction feature film produced in Canada; a critical and commercial success in Canada and the United States.
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