''Le grand chemin'' is a 1987

French film French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influ ...

directed by

Jean-Loup Hubert Jean-Loup Hubert (born 4 October 1949) is a French director and screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on w ...

. It was released in the U.S. as ''The Grand Highway'', and was remade in 1991 as ''

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

''. It won the

César Award for Best Actor This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actor (french: César du meilleur acteur). History Superlatives Winners 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations The following indivi ...

and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

Plot

Louis, a timid nine-year-old boy from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, spends his summer vacation in a small town in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. His mother Claire has lodged him with her girlfriend Marcelle and her husband Pelo while she is having her second baby. There Louis makes friends with Martine, the ten-year-old girl next door, and learns about life from her. His subsequent adventures run the gamut from delightful to terrifying, with a little "coming of age" (via a few glimpses of nudity) thrown in.

Cast

Richard Bohringer Richard Bohringer (born 16 January 1942) is a French actor. Personal life Bohringer was born in Moulins, Allier, to a French mother and a German father. He is the father of actress Romane Bohringer, and has three other children, Mathieu, Richa ...

– Pelo *

Anémone Anne Bourguignon (; 9 August 1950 – 30 April 2019), known professionally as Anémone (), was a French actress, filmmaker and political activist. She took her stage name in 1968 from the title of her film debut in Philippe Garrel's ''Anémone' ...

– Marcelle * Antoine Hubert – Louis *

Christine Pascal Christine Pascal (29 November 1953 – 30 August 1996) was a French actress, writer and director. Biography Born in Lyon, Rhône, Pascal made her film debut at 21 in Michel Mitrani's '' Les Guichets du Louvre'' (1974), and began an association w ...

– Claire *

Pascale Roberts Pascale is a common Francophone given name, the feminine of the name Pascal. The same spelling is also an Italian form of the masculine name ''Pascal'', and an Italian surname derived from the given name. Pascale derives from the Latin ''pas ...

– Yvonne *

Vanessa Guedj Vanessa may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Vanessa'' (Millais painting), an 1868 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais * ''Vanessa'', a 1933 novel by Hugh Walpole * ''Vanessa'', a 1952 instrumental song written by Bernie ...

– Martine

Production

''Le grand chemin'' was directed by

, and produced by Pascal Hommais and Jean Francois Lepetit. The film was released in the U.S. as ''The Grand Highway'', in French with English subtitles. Claude Lecomte served as director of photography, with camera operator Jean Paul Meurisse and film editor Raymonde Guyot. The musical score was composed by Georges Granier; the original soundtrack music was reissued in 2013 by Canadian label Disques Cinemusique.

Reception

and

won César Awards for Best Actor and

. The film was nominated for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

of the year by the U.S.

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

References

External links

* 1987 films 1987 drama films French drama films Films about children Films featuring a Best Actor César Award-winning performance Films featuring a Best Actress César Award-winning performance Films set in Brittany 1980s French-language films 1980s French films {{1980s-France-film-stub