Mademoiselle (1966)
Country: GB/FR
Technical: bw/2.35:1 105m
Director: Tony Richardson
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni, Umberto Orsini
Synopsis:
In rural France, a schoolmistress divides her spare time between working at the Mairie and inflicting scourges on the local community. She doesn't seem to care that she is endangering an Italian migrant worker, whose son she victimizes in school, and whom she secretly covets.
Review:
Based on a Jean Genet script, Richardson's foray into French co-production has a bizarreness which, combined with the absence of any musical underscoring, recalls some contemporary East-European cinema. The compositions are often off-centre, with the subject occupying the periphery of the frame, and there are shots in which, for example, a tree trunk takes up the bulk of the wide screen. Mademoiselle, who recalls the protagonists of Les Bonnes, is an enigma: she tapes crosses across her breasts but courts disaster by spending the night out with the Italian woodcutter; she is a dragon of decency and virtue in the classroom but attempts to drown, burn and poison the villagers' livelihood. She may represent the modern Marianne of De Gaulle's republic: hypocritical and reactionary. It is a gripping watch, at times quite beautifully made.
Country: GB/FR
Technical: bw/2.35:1 105m
Director: Tony Richardson
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni, Umberto Orsini
Synopsis:
In rural France, a schoolmistress divides her spare time between working at the Mairie and inflicting scourges on the local community. She doesn't seem to care that she is endangering an Italian migrant worker, whose son she victimizes in school, and whom she secretly covets.
Review:
Based on a Jean Genet script, Richardson's foray into French co-production has a bizarreness which, combined with the absence of any musical underscoring, recalls some contemporary East-European cinema. The compositions are often off-centre, with the subject occupying the periphery of the frame, and there are shots in which, for example, a tree trunk takes up the bulk of the wide screen. Mademoiselle, who recalls the protagonists of Les Bonnes, is an enigma: she tapes crosses across her breasts but courts disaster by spending the night out with the Italian woodcutter; she is a dragon of decency and virtue in the classroom but attempts to drown, burn and poison the villagers' livelihood. She may represent the modern Marianne of De Gaulle's republic: hypocritical and reactionary. It is a gripping watch, at times quite beautifully made.
Country: GB/FR
Technical: bw/2.35:1 105m
Director: Tony Richardson
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni, Umberto Orsini
Synopsis:
In rural France, a schoolmistress divides her spare time between working at the Mairie and inflicting scourges on the local community. She doesn't seem to care that she is endangering an Italian migrant worker, whose son she victimizes in school, and whom she secretly covets.
Review:
Based on a Jean Genet script, Richardson's foray into French co-production has a bizarreness which, combined with the absence of any musical underscoring, recalls some contemporary East-European cinema. The compositions are often off-centre, with the subject occupying the periphery of the frame, and there are shots in which, for example, a tree trunk takes up the bulk of the wide screen. Mademoiselle, who recalls the protagonists of Les Bonnes, is an enigma: she tapes crosses across her breasts but courts disaster by spending the night out with the Italian woodcutter; she is a dragon of decency and virtue in the classroom but attempts to drown, burn and poison the villagers' livelihood. She may represent the modern Marianne of De Gaulle's republic: hypocritical and reactionary. It is a gripping watch, at times quite beautifully made.