Act of the Heart (1970)

Name: Act of the Heart
Genre: Drama
Released: 1970-09-24
Duration: 103 min
Rating: 4.5
Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Donald Sutherland, Monique Leyrac, Sharon Acker, Eric House

Act of the Heart (1970), directed by Paul Almond, starring Geneviève Bujold and Donald Sutherland.

09/24/1970 BR Drama 1h 43m

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Synopsis

A woman's peculiar religious convictions lead her on a self-destructive path.

Jean BoffetyCinematography
Paul AlmondDirector, Producer, Writer
James MitchellEditing
Jennings LangProducer

About the film

The Act of the Heart is a 1970 Canadian drama film written, directed and produced by Paul Almond, and starring Geneviève Bujold, Donald Sutherland, Monique Leyrac and Sharon Acker.

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The Act of the Heart is a 1970 Canadian drama film written, directed and produced by Paul Almond, and starring Geneviève Bujold, Donald Sutherland, Monique Leyrac and Sharon Acker.

Plot

Martha Hayes (Geneviève Bujold) is a devoutly religious young woman from Québec's Côte-Nord who fancies herself as some kind of a saint. She has come to Montreal to serve as a nanny to Russell (Bill Mitchell), the son of a widowed business woman (Monique Leyrac).

Martha joins a church choir and becomes attracted to Father Michael Ferrier (Donald Sutherland), an Augustinian friar who has selected her to sing solo in an interfaith concert. Russell accidentally dies. Martha suffers a crisis in faith and to Ferrier declares her love for him. Ferrier reciprocates and leaves the order so they can live together with Martha singing to support them. Tormented by guilt for betraying her profound religious principles she immolates herself on a hill (Mount Royal) overlooking Montreal.

Cast

Genevieve Bujold as Martha Hayes

Donald Sutherland as Father Michael Ferrier

Monique Leyrac as Johane Foss

Sharon Acker as Adele

Eric House as Choirmaster

Ratch Wallace as Diedrich

Billy Mitchell as Russell Foss

Gilles Vigneault as Coach Ti-Jo

Jean Duceppe as Parks Commissioner

Suzanne Langlois as Housekeeper (uncredited)

Comment

Reviews of the film were mixed. A disappointment at the box-office, it nevertheless won six Canadian Film Awards - including Direction (Almond) and Lead Actress (Bujold). John Hofsess of Maclean's wrote, "Act of the Heart is the first Canadian feature film that compares in artistic quality and importance with the best of our literature, painting and music".

References

External links

The Act of the Heart at IMDb

The Act of the Heart at the TCM Movie Database (archived)

The Act of the Heart at Letterboxd

Text from The Act of the Heart on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_of_the_Heart

Trivia

It premiered on September 24, 1970, a Thursday.
It runs 1h43 — a typical feature length.
This film's quiz has 11 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.