Victoire Du Sault, the first shoemaker in the history of Quebec, was a pioneer, a visionary, a symbol of creativity, perseverance and justice. Her determination to learn and practice a trade hitherto reserved for men will lead her from a simple regional shoemaker to the manufacture and export of shoes, all over the planet; a company at the origin of the fortune of the Dufresne family, best known for the castle that bears their name, in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
This inspiring career path is, however, relegated to the background in the film. the cobbler, adapted from the series of novels of the same name by Pauline Gill, which retraces the singular destiny of this exceptional woman. Here, his business triumphs serve more as a foil to the torments and passions of his heart, both being moved, in a mirror effect that one would have liked more pronounced by the same constantly denied desire to exist apart. whole, to give free rein to her desires, to break the chains that bind women.
The film opens with an elderly Victoire Du Sault, threatened by death. Overwhelmed by a life of secrets, she confides in her eldest son, anxious not to let the truth about her family die with her, leading the viewer on a journey to her ghosts. We then find her a teenager, ambitious, “hard-headed”, in love with a man twenty years her senior. To avoid dishonor, she will have to resign herself to marrying his son, thereby chaining herself to a life of secrets, heartbreaks, regrets.
In the role of the shoemaker, Rose-Marie Perreault is impeccable with restraint and interiority, managing to make credible and human a dramatic arc that is sometimes difficult to adhere to. From the young unmarried woman who has no trouble finding herself alone with her lover, to the virtual absence of the Church and its hegemony, passing through pearly skin and hands as white as the clothes, the realism is not the priority.
Everything, the classic staging, the sumptuousness of the costumes and sets, the soothing and romantic voice of Élise Guilbault, who narrates the story, is at the service of the grandiloquence of emotions, for better or for worse. To this end, the director François Bouvier chooses most of the time to adopt the admiring and upset point of view of his male characters, magnifying and weakening his protagonist, sometimes to the detriment of a more rebellious approach.
But the film works, is sheltered from too great outpourings to convey agitated souls, amorous emotions, the insolence of desire, thus involving the spectator in this great emotional storm. A tragic love story that will delight all admirers of Pauline Gill’s work, and those whose hearts still tremble for Alexis, Donalda, Ovila and Émilie.