The film depicts two men canoeing on the Lièvre River near Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, Quebec. Five poems by the Canadian poet Archibald Lampman –Solitude, After Mist, Ambition, A Dawn on the Lièvre, and the 1888 classic Morning on the Lièvre, are narrated by broadcaster and poet George Whalley.[2] The poems give a detailed description of the forest, providing a narrative timeline progressing from dawn to full day. Ambition closes the film by asserting Lampman's rejection of contemporary society and his choice to remain in nature.[3]
The scene was inspired by Lampman's friendship with civil servant and poet Duncan Campbell Scott; Scott had introduced Lampman to camping and the appreciation of nature, while Lampman inspired Scott to begin writing poetry.[citation needed]
Due to poor weather and spoiled footage, Bairstow shot the film over two seasons, and in autumn, rather than in the spring, when Lampman actually took the trip that inspired the poem. He wanted the scenes to be linked by a recurring musical motif and commissioned original work from Eldon Rathburn. He took the advice of assistant director Stephen Greenlees, who had commented that the original footage was "monotonous", and added staged footage of the river's rapids. He also emphasized the colours of the leaves, which are a defining element of the landscape tradition of the Group of Seven; the images in the film specifically recall paintings by the Group, such as The Red MaplebyA. Y. Jackson, J. E. H. MacDonald's Falls, Montreal River, and Tom Thomson's In the Northland.[4]
The choice to adapt Morning on the Lièvre to film was a significant departure from the National Film Board of Canada's previous literary adaptations, but it was a familiar poem to students of the time and fit the board's mandate to make educational films that could be used in classrooms, and that were visually artistic and experimental.[5]
^Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN0-7737-3238-1. pp. 57-60.
1 These two films were given honorable mentions rather than officially winning the award, but are included here as no other winner was named above them.
This article related to a Canadian film of the 1960s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
