Le Chemin des écoliers
1959 Comedy / Drama / War
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Credits
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Summary
Paris, 1943. To accommodate his mistress, Yvette,
17 year-old Antoine Michaud involves himself in black market activities
with his friend, Paul Tiercelin. Whilst his parents believe
he is taking a holiday in the country, he takes charge of the delivery
of a shipment of champagne. It is not long before his
father discovers the truth...Review
Le Chemin des écoliers
isn’t so much a film as a head-spinning confluence of some of the most
impressive acting talent in French cinema in the late
1950s. Established stars Bourvil and Françoise
Arnoul find themselves in the midst of a veritable cavalcade of
up-and-coming talent, in the form of Lino Ventura, Alain Delon and
Jean-Claude Brialy, actors who would rise to great prominance in the
following decade. For any aficionado of French cinema, the cast
list alone would be enough to make the film compulsory viewing,
irrespective of its content.The film itself is a rather pedestrian affair, engaging enough (thanks to its great cast) but somewhat bland and predictable - typical of mainstream French cinema at the time (hence the justification for la nouvelle vague). The screenplay was adapted from a novel by Marcel Aymé, on whose work the film La Traversée de Paris, a similar (but vastly superior) wartime comedy-drama, also starring Bourvil, was based. © James Travers 2008
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