Year: 1970
Language: French
Format: 35mm Colour
Runtime: 93 min
Director: Denis Héroux
Producer: John Dunning, André Link
Writer: Yves Thériault, John Dunning, Denis Héroux, André Link
Cinematographer: René Verzier
Editor: Jean Lafleur
Sound: Yves Sauvageau
Music: François Cousineau
Cast: Danielle Ouimet, Céline Lomez, Chantal Renaud, Jacques Riberolles, Gilles Chartrand, Daniel Gadouas, Serge Laprade, Louise Turcot
Production Company: Cinépix Inc., Les Productions Héroux Ltée

Two university students, Nadine (Danielle Ouimet) and Vicky (Chantal Renaud), spend their summers in the country chatting about love and sex. Nadine is more sexually mature than Vicky, who anticipates her first experience with romantic idealism and is shocked when her inexperienced boyfriend, Pierre (Gilles Chartrand), tries brutally to make love to her. Upon her return to university, Vicky meets Gervais (Jacques Riberolles), an author from France who is famous for a sexually explicit book, Initiation. While they enjoy a passionate and romantic affair, Pierre learns some valuable sexual lessons of his own from Nadine. After Gervais goes back home to his family, Pierre comes to understand that he is of no real significance to Nadine; he returns to Vicky and the possibility of a more fulfilling relationship.

Noticeably similar to his earlier Valérie (1969), Denis Héroux’s L’Initiation continued the highly successful cycle of "maple syrup porno" films that came out of Quebec in the late sixties and early seventies. L’Initiation was even more successful than its predecessor, grossing almost two million dollars. Though panned by critics, it set a single-day box office record in Toronto and was released in many countries worldwide.