À La Croisée Des Chemins
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''At the Crossroads'' () is a 1943 Canadian film directed by Jean-Marie Poitevin and written by
Paul Guèvremont Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo P ...
. The first dramatic feature to be produced by a Quebec religious community, the Société des Missions-Étrangères du Québec, it was narrated by
René Lévesque René Lévesque ( ; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to seek, ...
, the future premier of Quebec.


Plot

A young man, Jean Liber (Paul Guèvremont), who, at the end of his ''cours classique'', decides to leave his rich, happy family and his fiancée, Pauline (Denise Pelletier), in order to become a missionary in China. This story of his struggle, 'at the crossroads' between love and God's calling, is clearly a pretext for a film designed to encourage young men to enter missionary work.


Production

''At the Crossroads'' was the first fictional feature-length film made in sound in Quebec. It was an adpatation of Guy Stein's ''La folle aventure''.


Importance

''À la croisée des chemins'' was based on a religious drama by Guy Stein, ''La folle aventure'', which had been staged in 1942 for the 300th anniversary of the founding of Montreal. Canadian film historian Peter Morris wrote: "It
he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
offers a remarkable ideological portrait of Quebec before the
Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution () was a period of socio-political and socio-cultural transformation in French Canada, particularly in Quebec, following the 1960 Quebec general election. This period was marked by the secularization of the government, the ...
. Clearly apparent are the values of a lifestyle fostered by a militant Catholic Church: friendship, warmth, and an unproblematic family life. Equally apparent (at least in retrospect) are destructive self-sacrifice, repressed sexuality, and mutually sustaining links between religious and economic establishments."


References


Works cited

* 1943 films History of Catholicism in Quebec Quebec films Films about Catholicism René Lévesque Canadian black-and-white films Roman Catholic missionaries in China Canadian Roman Catholic missionaries Canadian drama films 1943 drama films 1940s French-language films French-language Canadian films 1940s Canadian films {{1940s-Canada-film-stub