This screening is the London premiere of the film Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful and will be followed by a Q&A with director Lyne Charlebois.

Brother Marie-Victorin (Le Jardin Botanique, La Flore Laurentienne) was 46 when he met 23-year-old Marcelle Gauvreau. Both have been close to death and share the same love of God and Nature. He becomes her teacher, later she becomes his assistant. Their friendship evolves. Marie-Victorin offers Marcelle different readings on sexuality that she hastens to comment on from her own intimate experiences. In an epistolary exchange that will last until the death of Marie-Victorin, they explore human desires and "biology without a veil". This great chaste love, the love of Quebec's flora, pushes them to question their own relationship with love and Nature. The film is produced by Roger Frappier (The Decline of the American Empire).

The history of the film

Ten years ago, Dr Craig Moyes discovered a cache of letters in the archives of the Université du Québec à Montréal. It turned out to be a secret correspondence on human sexuality between Canada’s most important botanist (and founder of the Montreal Botanical Gardens), Brother Marie-Victorin, and his research assistant, Marcelle Gauvreau, which had been sealed since Marie-Victorin’s death in 1944.

Dr Moyes joined forces with Yves Gingras, historian of science and world expert on Marie-Victorin, and published his letters in 2018 and hers in 2019.

The astonishing story of two devout and celibate Catholics in pre-war Quebec exploring the terra incognita of their own sexuality piqued the interest of film producer Roger Frappier (The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions) and director Lyne Charlebois (Borderline), and last year, they brought it to the screen.

The film opened in Quebec to great acclaim last summer and we are lucky to have been able to partner with the Garden Cinema, just around the corner from King’s, for its UK premiere.

The correspondence itself was reissued last year in a single volume to coincide with the release of the film.

There will be a book (re)launch, with a reception, an exhibition of botanical photography, and a round table discussion on “Representing Nature on Film” at the Exchange Space (Bush House, NE) on 20 March. Click here fore more information.