Tonight's movie was "A Nous Amours" (1983) on Criterion, directed by Maurice Pialat. Pialat is yet another French director who is new to me, and he is said to be "The French John Cassavetes", which I suppose must mean that his movies look and feel like overwrought, emotionally draining slices of real life. I remarked recently on another directorial comparison, by some critics, of Chabrol to Hitchcock, and I concluded that I did not find it to be valid. The Pialat/Cassavetes equation I am not prepared to make a judgement upon, as I have only seen this one Pialat film, which I discovered not by a search for his films but rather by a search for films with Sandrine Bonnaire, who has starred in many Claude Chabrol films. I can say, however, after "A Nous Amours", that Maurice Pialat is of the Cassavetes school of emotional confrontation.
Bonnaire made her debut in this film, which I had not heard of but which was deemed important enough by Criterion to restore and release under their label, and it must be said, right off the bat, that in France there must be different laws regarding the age of consent, or adulthood or whatever legal standards must be met, because she is playing a 16 year old in the film, and there are several scenes in which she is topless. Now, another French director named Louis Malle made waves in 1978 when he showed a 12 year old Brooke Shields topless in a bathtub in "Pretty Baby". Both films were released to American audiences, though, and no censorship was brought down. I am guessing the reason is because the movies were French made.....though I am not sure about "Pretty Baby".
I saw "Pretty Baby" when it came out. I was 18, and that movie started for me a huge crush on Brooke Shields, who already had a career as a child model. She became a top model after that, and remained so throughout the 1980s. "Pretty Baby" is a good movie, not great, and the bathtub scenes are nothing salacious. However, I am 58 now - not 18 - and if I had a daughter in Brooke Shields' position, I don't think I would allow her - at 12 - to be photographed in such a way, even though it is nothing over the top and even though it made her a movie star and led to her becoming a top model.
I guess the French think differently, because the scenes with Sandrine Bonnaire in "A Nos Amours" are more graphic. Again, they are not salacious, but the actress is 16 (I checked the IMDB), and 16 is different than 12, as Brooke Shields was in her movie. I became a fan of Sandrine Bonnaire from her films with Claude Chabrol, most of which were made 15 to 20 years later when she was in her 30s. On the one hand, she is very attractive, as are many if not most famous lead actresses. That is a reality in cinema the world over. Less attractive women, and men, get the character parts. But in "A Nous Amours", the director Pialat photographs her topless, in adult situations, and so, it's a bit disconcerting because of her age, though as I say, in France things must be different, and it's not anything pornographic. Just nudity at a younger age than would be allowed in an American film, and I mention this simply to acknowledge it, not to condemn or promote it. If I were watching this movie at age 18, I'd be going "oh boy"!, but at age 58, even though the images look the same to the eyes, I just think - "what if that were my daughter"? In retrospect, I believe that Brooke Shields had some issues she dealt with when she reached adulthood, having to do with her mother, who managed her early career (and I have a copy of "The Brooke Book" signed by her mother Terri Shields).
The French seem to deal with these issues in a different way.......or maybe not.
Because in the movie, the topless nudity appears only in a few scenes, and the teenage Bonnaire character pays dearly for her promiscuity. She is the daughter of a clothing designer and his wife. Her father is overbearing but also loving, he dotes on his daughter. Her mother is washed-out and worked to death by the father, for whom she toils as a seamstress. She has a brother who aspires to be a playwright, but hasn't the drive to reach that goal. Instead, he is jealous of his little sister because she is beautiful and has many boyfriends.
The other side of this film is it's domestic violence, and in this regard the director Pialat can be certainly compared to John Cassavetes. The brother resents Sandrine Bonnaire's character. She is his little sister, she is popular and very sexual - though troubled - and he is fat and homebound, letting his playwriting creativity dissipate. So when she comes home very late at night, from a date, he beats her up.
Okay. So what we have so far is a beautiful teenaged girl, full of hormones, who comes from an extremely dysfunctional family. And all she has for affirmation at such a vulnerable point in her life is the attentions of young guys, naturally - but worse - guys who are older and who can manipulate her.
Her parents provide no leadership, and so away she goes, with only her abusive brother to keep her in line.
That's all I have to say about "A Nos Amours". I suppose the teenage nudity takes away from the story, because it causes you to consider it. I won't get on a high horse about it, and I'd have had an opposite reaction to it 30 to 40 years ago, but there you have it. It's not that big a deal, but it causes you to consider these things in the age of Me Too. I don't know if the French have a Me Too problem, and maybe not, for their permissiveness is right there on the screen for all to see.
Well anyway, "A Nos Amours" is a good movie, not great. It is about the promiscuity of a young girl, caused by terrible family disconnection and dysfunction. She develops into a young woman who is unable to love anyone, and it is rather sad in the end.
Another rainy day today, pattering on the roof as I write.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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