Graduate First (1979) ( Passe ton bac d'abord )

Graduate First (1979) (Blu-Ray) (*)

~~$27.99~~ $24.98

Original Title: Passe ton bac d'abord
Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( DTS-HD Master Audio )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
85 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.66:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Documentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)
Remastered

Movie filmed in 1979 and produced in:
Canada ( USA, Canada )
France ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
Maurice Pialat

Written By:
Maurice Pialat

Actors:
Sabine Haudepin ..... Élisabeth
Philippe Marlaud ..... Philippe
Annick Alane ..... La mère (as Annik Alane)
Michel Caron ..... Le père
Christian Bouillette ..... Le vieux dragueur
Bernard Tronczak ..... Bernard
Patrick Lepcynski ..... Patrick
Valérie Chassigneux ..... Valérie
Jean-François Adam ..... Le professeur de philosophie
Agnès Makowiak ..... Agnès
Charline Bourré ..... Charline
Patrick Playez ..... Rocky, le marié
Muriel Lacroix ..... Muriel
Frédérique Cerbonnet ..... Frédérique
Fabienne Neuville ..... La soeur d'Élizabeth

Synopsis:

The world sometimes seems divided into two camps: those who recall their teenage years as having been an exhilarating dream, and those who remember them as having been an infernal, nightmarish hell. With all this in mind, it might do to describe Passe Ton Bac D'Abord as Maurice Pialat's "The Best Years Of Our Lives", while bearing in mind all that such a description might suggest. It's an elastic, unsparing portrait of teenage life in the suburbs of France from an era when the phrase "sixteen candles" still might have conjured the image of flames. A group of young actors including several local unknowns - Philippe Marlaud, Bernard Tronczyk, Patrick Lepczynski and Sabine Haudepin (once the little girl of Truffaut's Jules et Jim), among others - make up the cluster of friends adrift beneath the twilight of their school years. There's drama, violence, and pot-induced laughs - group holidays, indiscriminate sex, advances from teachers twenty-five years their seniors, attempted moves to Paris, and few prospects of passing the bac, the final set of exams French students take before embarking into the world to... do what?
Marking the last work of Pialat's turbulent cycle of films made in the 1970s, Passe Ton Bac D'abord... is the brilliant spiritual sequel to the great filmmaker's feature-debut L'Enfance-nue - picked up again from a vantage ten years on from the lives of the earlier film's protagonists.

In this grim slice-of-life film, the dead-end future of a number of young French teenagers living in a northern mining town is closely examined. Some lapse into debauchery, others enter into loveless marriages. A few even stay the course and get their diplomas, which qualify them to do the same meaningless jobs they would be doing without diplomas. One or two flee to Paris, and try their luck in that rat race.

Set in a French city in a northern mining region. About some secondary school students who see little reason to work towards a baccalaureat when the outcome is either a dead-end job or debilitating unemployment.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 07 November, 2021.