THE GRAND HIGHWAY

  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY
  • THE GRAND HIGHWAY

THE GRAND HIGHWAY
A film by Jean-Loup Hubert1987

Rouans 1959 - Louis, a young Parisian aged 9, of a fragile and emotional disposition, turns up one summer day in an isolated Breton village. His mother - pregnant and separated from her husband - leaves abruptly, after entrusting him to her childhood friend, Marcelle, and Pelo, the local carpenter… Louis is cast into a new world where everything surprises him: the archaic language and the coarseness of the country people, the rites of the countryside, the night sounds and the vast graveyard that lies beneath his windows… Marcelle and Pelo, above all, intrigue the child. He can sense a mystery at the heart of this broken couple, an ancient hatred that explodes at times in dazzling surges of violence. At first the simple witness of this daily struggle, Louis soon becomes the stake in it. Marcelle and Pelo, each in their own way, attempt to win him over. Between the possessive love of the first and the gruff friendship of the second, the boy learns to find his own bearings. With great difficulty, he gets used to his new family, toughens and starts to judge the adult world with a more attentive eye. His little neighbour, Martine, cheeky and forward, leads him along in her games and on the discovery of other mysteries… But, one day, Louis finally discovers a few truths about life. Exaggeratedly sickened by the hypocrisy and clumsy lies of grown-ups, he attempts a "desperate" act. The drama, with its nearly tragic outcome, brings Marcelle and Pelo closer together and, following Louis' departure, they recover their past complicity…

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REVUE DE PRESSE

Entretien avec Jean-Loup HUBERT concernant LE GRAND CHEMIN-636

Interview with Jean-Loup HUBERT About the characters : Le Grand Chemin is the story of a child, Louis, whom his […]

Entretien avec Jean-Loup HUBERT concernant LE GRAND CHEMIN-636

Interview with Jean-Loup HUBERT



About the characters :

Le Grand Chemin is the story of a child, Louis, whom his pregnant mother entrusts for a few weeks to a couple of villagers: Marcelle and Pelo. We learn very little about this boy's past. We simply guess that his parents are going through a sticky patch. Louis has very little information about this. That's his main problem. He suspects serious dissent between his father and his mother but he cannot get the latter to "admit" anything. Moreover, he is worried, like any child expecting a little bother or sister. Finally, he is a fragile, excessively mothered child who finds himself suddenly thrown without the slightest explanation into a world that is completely foreign to him. Louis is constantly in his mother's skirts and he now finds himself in an unknown and unsettling world. At first, no one helps him. Pelo even traps him fairly meanly by making him think that he'll be spending a few hellish weeks with a drunkard and a wicked stepmother. The film revolves around a series of secrets and discoveries: sexuality, death, first love, the mystery of the Pelo-Marcelle couple… Adult want to hide all kinds of things from children, but leave all kinds of clues lying around or talk in riddles that merely increase children's confusion and curiosity. They force a child to reconstitute truth with his own logic, in other words to fantasize about things that shouldn't bother him. Adults perversely involve children in their own self-valorization. This is in fact what happens with Marcelle and Pelo: they ask Louis to choose between them and to referee their conflict. In Marcelle and Pelo's life there is a secret that we don't discover until the end. These two people probably loved one another intensely once and were struck by tragedy. Their lives are a daily heartbreak and they have even forgotten the original reason for it. We mainly see their relationship through Louis' eyes. And this seems all the more enigmatic for it. The two of them, like all adults, are playing parts and conform to certain social archetypes. A life can also be built up like that. Children have a hard time understanding the logic of this and, fortunately, they have moments alone when they can play and escape all this. During one of these pauses, Louis meets Martine who becomes his accomplice and mentor. Martine is one length ahead of him. She's a country girl who has already been confronted with the realities of life that young city-dwellers often know nothing about. She has information that she shares with Louis, to charm him, tease him and make herself interesting in his eyes.



How did you come to write this film that owes a great deal to your own memories ?

Everything started with the failure of a project, Sanguine, that I was particularly keen on and that fell apart two weeks before shooting. Sickened by this, I went to "recharge my batteries" in the country, swearing that I'd never make any more concessions in my career. I quickly rediscovered a whole series of memories and emotions from my childhood and wrote the treatment with dialogue in a month. I had already lived in Marcelle and Pelo's house and I knew every detail of the Grand Chemin where we were going to shoot. I had returned there at twenty and, since then, the place has changed very little. Marcelle's garden is still there, as well as the main street, the graveyard that scared me so much and the church at the heart of the village, as imposing as a cathedral…



The interiors, however, had probably changed a great deal, along with the props, clothes…

Indeed, we changed a number of details but I wanted to avoid the pitfall of historical reconstitution. Above all, I want to create a climate rather than a precise period. In the fifties, this village was totally cut off from the rest of the world. Its whole life revolved around its church and graveyard. A trip to Nantes was a genuine expedition… These people had their own language. They didn't have an accent but their conversation was studded with old-fashioned expressions typical of country regions. It was a lively and imaginative language. I have relatives in that region and I know it well from my frequent visits there. When I finished my screenplay, I gave it to a local woman to read, as well as to Marcelle and my mother, whom it mainly concerned. Marcelle, who plays the old chicken-plucker, also viewed the dailies and she was both moved and happy to experience those days revived, to see Pelo's workshop again…



You have given the part of Louis to your son, Antoine. Did you think of him straight away ?

I wrote the character while watching Antoine, who has the same age as Louis and similar reactions. After "using" him at the writing stage, I naturally asked him to appear in the film. He had no film experience but he liked the idea of spending two months in my company. He hadn't read the script and discovered each scene a few hours before performing it. We tried to shoot the film in chronological order so that he would understand the character's development. Afterwards, he would ask me about my experiences at his age. I think that helped to bring us closer together. Young people rarely know anything about their parents' childhood…



How did you find Vanessa Guedj (Martine) ?

In the most classical way possible. We did tests with a number of little girls. We could give them half an hour to learn the apple tree scene, when Martine says to Louis, "Why are you always looking at my knickers, you dirty pig?" Most of the girls panicked but Vanessa just stood there, stock still and with enormous self-confidence. I saw right away that she had the right temperament for Martine.



How did she get on with Antoine ?

There was a blend of flirting and rivalry between them. Their idea was to finish as quickly as possible so that they could go and play. So each tried to be the best and know his or her lines by heart.



What sort of atmosphere did you create on the set for these two children ?

I like working with young people a lot. I appreciate their generosity, spontaneity and the aptness of their reactions. The problem is canalizing their energy and forcing them to conform to the discipline of work. You have to act like a schoolmaster, with a blend of affection, attention and authority. You must never talk to them like adult actors because then they become unbearable.



Anémone doesn't have the image of a dramatic actress and people tend to forget that she started out in that register.

After seeing her in Péril en la demeure, I never doubted for a second that she could play Marcelle. Physically, she was very close to the character and the couple that she formed with Richard Bohringer was totally credible. I also wanted to work with Richard Bohringer. We did some costume tests and when he put on his velvet trousers, I thought I was seeing Pelo! Richard, a pure product of the city, slipped with astounding ease into the skin of his character. He adopted Pelo's gestures and rhythm, finding it hard to rid himself of them afterwards.



Anémone and Bohringer bring a great deal of dignity to Marcelle and Pelo. However violent their confrontations, we can sense a genuine moral exigency in these characters.

Pelo (who died a few years ago) was a craftsman. He had the traditional culture of the trained carpenter and a shrewdness that is often rare in country people. Marcelle is an intelligent woman. They were both more open than the people around them. In the film, they don't simply put up with the situation that they are in: they attempt to analyse it and justify their behaviour in front of Louis. They are also competing for the love of this child. They need to give him their affection and receive his in return. They fight over the boy and that creates a renewed complicity between them. After Louis leaves, the film ends with Marcelle and Pelo. It's an open but optimistic ending…



Olivier Eyquem

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THE GRAND HIGHWAY

THE GRAND HIGHWAY