Pages:

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Belle Fille Comme Moi


Also Known As/Subtitle:
Gorgeous Girl Like Me
Year:
1972
Country:
France…
Predominant Genre:
Comedy
Director:
François Truffaut…
Outstanding Performance:
Bernadette LAFONT…
Premiss:
A young sociologist, preparing a thesis on criminal women, interviews Camille Bliss in prison. She tells him her life, her murders and her love affairs.
Themes:
Christianity
Compassion
Courage
Destiny
Emotional repression
Empathy
Humanity
Identity
Loneliness
Nature
Self-expression
Sexism
Social class
Solipsism
Stereotyping
White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
DVD

Really Bernadette LAFONT’s film since she completely overwhelms the narrative and so perfectly embodies her role. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine another actress playing this particular part.

LAFONT plays a young woman with an innocent and unaffected sexuality that men find hard to resist; while also being completely cynical, calculating & manipulative in this satire on repressed Western male sexuality.

The journey from prison (for murdering her abusive father) and her successful marriage and wealth in her own name is quite an odyssey for a lower-class kid. Yet, the events depicted are somewhat arbitrary and could easily be seen in any order. This makes it difficult for the story to reveal character so that we never get much beyond a mannered, superficial, French farce of a sex comedy – albeit a frequently-funny one.


Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

No comments:

Post a Comment