''Le Garçu'' (English: "The Boy") is a 1995 French drama film directed by

Maurice Pialat Maurice Pialat (; 31 August 1925 – 11 January 2003) was a French film director, screenwriter and actor known for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films. His work is often described as " realist",

and starring Gérard Depardieu. It was Pialat's final work. He was dissatisfied with the film and even planned to re-edit it, but his failing health made that impossible.

Plot

Gérard, mentally still adolescent, adores Antoine, his four-year-old son with Sophie, his second and much younger wife. On a holiday to Mauritius, she finally can no longer stand his immature behaviour and returns with the child to Paris. Gérard is given a room by his ex-wife and finds himself company for the nights. Taking Sophie and Antoine for a holiday to Sables d'Olonne, they meet up with Jeannot and his partner. The woman pounces on Gérard for a night's fling, but Jeannot is seriously drawn to Sophie and, moving in with her, helps looks after little Antoine. When a hospital in Auvergne rings to say that Gérard's father ("le garçu" in the local dialect) is on his deathbed, Sophie unhesitatingly goes there with him. Her support brings the two closer again, but Gérard is never going to grow up and Jeannot has become a father to the child.

Cast

* Gérard Depardieu as Gérard *

Géraldine Pailhas Géraldine Pailhas (born 8 January 1971) is a French actress. Career In 1992, she won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her role in ''La neige et le feu'', directed by Claude Pinoteau. She had her first international success in ...

as Sophie *Antoine Pialat as Antoine * Dominique Rocheteau as Jeannot *Fabienne Babe as Cathy * Élisabeth Depardieu as Micheline *Claude Davy as Le Garçu *Isabelle Costacurta as Isabelle

Filming

''Le Garçu'' was filmed on

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Release

The film was screened at the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

on 30 September 1996. In 2005, ''Le Garçu'' was screened at Dryden Theatre.

References

External links