Cinema
À la croisée des chemins
Jean-Marie Poitevin · 1943
Synopsis
Jean Leber, son of well-off parents in Montreal, finishes his classical course and falls in love with Pauline Garnier during the summer. In the autumn, a missionary back from China gives an illustrated lecture at the college: in the middle of the film, its projection gives way to views shot in Manchuria. The young man feels called in his turn. Torn between Pauline and this vocation, he has to face his parents as well as the girl.
Context
The screenplay takes up the play La folle aventure, by Guy Stein, first performed in 1942 for the tercentenary of Montreal; Poitevin inserted into it the images he had brought back from Manchuria. The film was produced in 1942 and released in 1943; silent when shot, it was given a soundtrack added afterwards, spoken by a twenty-year-old René Lévesque. It was not made for cinemas: according to Films du Québec, the print circulated for about ten years in schools and parish halls.
Who it is for
An hour and a half, a fiction framing a long documentary passage; the edifying aim is constant.
Prizes and reception
Often regarded as the first sound fiction feature produced in Quebec, the sound having been added after the shoot.
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