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This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This was the first of seven occasions on which Julien Duvivier would direct Jean Gabin. It was Gabin's seventeenth film as an actor, Duvivier's thirty-third as a director. Gabin's billing was never less than that of co-star and eventually he was billed first, nevertheless there is more than a grain of truth in the allegations that Duvivier elevated Gabin from National to International stardom and this was an auspicious beginning to the screen partnership. In dramatic terms it's something of a feather merchant but it does have the advantage of being shot in the harsh environment of French-speaking Quebec which, to paraphrase Fred Allen, is a great place to live - if you're a caribou. Ostensibly Madeleine Renaud is the star as the eponymous heroine of a well-loved novel that was filmed several times. Gabin is the trapper with whom she falls in love and who leaves her to journey North in search of furs and a plan to return a wealthy man and marry her. Possibly illogically he decides to return just as a blizzard strikes, freezes to death and is devoured by wolves - it's not without the realms of probability that Hemingway remembered this when writing The Old Man And The Sea in which the ancient fisherman's catch rather than he himself is devoured by sharks. With more than a sideways nod to Nanook Of The North the photography is stunning and a true recording of a way of life that has gone the way of the Dodo and the entire film is a credit to all concerned.

The movie seems like an attempt to represent Quebec for a French audience, with an emphasis on what's unusual about the province's language, landscape, religious and working practices, etc. There's a lot of music and singing as well (including "Alouette" and other familiar songs of the times), with ultimately only a wisp of a story.The title character, Maria Chapdelaine, is in love with François Paradis, and has to deal with his absence as he leaves to earn his livelihood as a fur trapper over the winter months. I won't say more about the story, because I would spoil the few surprises that it has to offer. Unless you have a fascination for rural life in Quebec in the 1930s, you will find the movie slow going.

Madeleine Renaud plays the title character--a young woman living in the French-speaking part of rural Quebec--the part that almost always seems like it's freezing cold! She falls in love with a trapper who has plans of settling down and becoming a farmer (Jean Gabin in one of his early roles). However, he wants to finish up the season and then come back to marry her. Eventually, however, he freezes to death and is eaten by wolves--leaving Madeleine miserable and being pursued by two new suitors. While this is the plot, the film really is much more of a meandering slice of life film. It shows life in a rural village with all its many privations. About the only joy I saw was around Christmas (and the people singing was quite lovely) but then only minutes later Madeleine got word about her dead fiancé! What a great way to celebrate, huh?! While this is a very lovely film to see, it's also a very, very slow film. If you are French-Canadian, you'll no doubt enjoy it much more. And, if you are a sociologist or history teacher, you might also get more out of the film--as it records a lost way of life. But, for the rest of the people out there this will probably be very slow going. Tedious at times and grim, you may need to force yourself to stick with this one.By the way, if you do like this film, try "Mon Oncle Antoine". It's also set in French-Canada and is about rural life. However, if you didn't love "Maria Chapdelaine", then you'd best avoid "Mon Oncle Antoine"!

...you who love the French culture and without whom I could not have written these comments on Duvivier's earlier films which I had not seen for years."Maria Chapdelaine " is Canadian,you're going to tell me.But Duvivier almost treated Hémon's book as a musical.And all the songs we can hear are part (with the exception of "Alouette" ,pure Canadian stuff,but which is popular in France too)of the French national heritage.Songs of love "A la Claire Fontaine",François Paradis's favorite, country songs ("Marianne s'en Va-t-Au -Moulin" ), naughty ditties (the delightful "Son Voile qui Volait") ,Christmas carols ("Minuit Chrétiens "(aka "O Holy Night" ) and "IL est Né Le Divin Infant")and more more....More a chronicle than a real story,"Maria Chapdelaine" is one of the rare Duvivier movies which do not feature villains.No evil here but people who have to struggle hard all their life against a hostile nature (the horse falling in the snow is a beautiful metaphor) ;the only culture they get is religion ("Maria ,if you say 1,000 "Ave Maria" before Xmas,your dream will come true") or superstition (the bonesetter).Gabin's first part (and it will not be the last!)in a Duvivier's movie:Duvivier really MADE Gabin.Jean-Pierre Aumont appears in a part of a young man who has moved to the city.The cinematography is dazzling (even is the copy is as awful as you said ,Oystein):they say Ingmar Bergman used to dissect Duvivier's works.