A Very Curious Girl (1969) User Reviews

"You made her work like a dog for a bowl of soup."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 20 July 2016]

Taken by her performance in the interestingly off-beat A Gorgeous Girl Like Me,I decided to take a look at actress Bernadette Lafont's other credits from the year.Looking round online for other Lafont movies,I stumbled upon one which sounded like a quality slice of French smut… I mean erotica,which led to me getting ready to find out how gorgeous this curious girl could be.

The plot:

Moving to a town in the countryside, Marie and her family are looked down upon by everyone,with all the men secretly groping Marie,thanks to no one listening to a word she says. Whilst cleaning up,Marie gets the tragic news that her mum has died after being hit by a car.Wanting to not see any of the villagers fake tears,Marie decides to bury her mother in the back garden (!) Disguised by how the town has treated her,Marie decides to turn the tables,by becoming the lone prostitute in the village. Used to having their way with her,the married men in the village secretly pay for her services,completely unaware that Marie is planning to show the true face of the village.

View on the film:

Joined by a cheeky Louis Malle as the reverent Jesus, (perhaps an in-joke over the response to Malle's The Lovers?) the very sexy Bernadette Lafont (who appears naked) gives an excellent performance as Marie.Starting the movie nervous and curled up in the corner, Lafont rolls out Marie to reveal a quick-witted pragmatic nature barely hidden behind Marie's risqué clothes.

Looking at the village from the outcast perspective of Marie,the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Michel Fabre/Claude Makovski and Jacques Serguine) director Nelly Kaplan (a women director!) takes a satirical jab at the elite bourgeoisie lifestyle,by cleverly making everyone in the village expose their two-faced morals at the very first sight of the alluring vixen. Whilst offering some naughty flings,the writers mainly lace witty one liners which hit all the men trying to keep their good moral image,whilst secretly playing away with Marie.Soaking the village in a rustic grit,director Kaplan and cinematographer Jean Badal neatly balance the earthy shine by packing Marie's house with odds and ends brilliantly displayed which cast a rich bohemian atmosphere,as Marie reveals how curious she is.

a rediscovered jewell from the French cinema of the 60s

[dromasca · 8/10 · 26 May 2020]

The life of a cinephile holds surprises and sometimes these surprises are very pleasant. This is the case with the discovery of a film made in 1969 - 'La fiancée du pirate' (in English it was distributed under the title 'A Very Curious Girl') -, made by a very interesting director (Nelly Kaplan) about whom I knew nothing before, and with a remarkable actress (Bernadette Lafont) once considered considered "the face of French New Wave" about whom I should surely have known more in the lead role. These are completely or almost completely forgotten names, an undeserved forgetfulness in my opinion. 'La fiancée du pirate' is a film that should be taken out of the archives and re-released for today's audiences because it deserves to be seen, known and discussed by film lovers, now, 50 years after its first launching.

After seeing the film, which was a revelation for me, I looked for information about the director. Nelly Kaplan is a writer of fiction and film books, and began her career as an assistant to Abel Gance in the 1950s. A few 'art' short films followed in the 1960s. 'La fiancée du pirate' was her first feature film, after which she directed several more films, but none seems to approach its level. A unique career peak? Why? Has she been categorized as a 'daring' filmmaker close to soft-porn? 'La fiancée du pirate' has a dose of nudity and eroticism that today seems 'standard' but even in 1969, at least in French cinema, I don't think it was a very shocking film. However, her career as a 'serious' writer seems to have overshadowed that of a director. What a pity.

The story of the film takes place in a French village on the edge of which the main heroine, Marie, lives in a hut, performing the derisive work of a maid, being economically and sexually exploited by many locals, men and women. The shock of her mother's death and the visit of a friend, an itinerant film projectionist (the excellent Michel Constantin), determine her to decide that it was time for her life to take a turn. She will start charging for sexual services and will take revenge on those who exploited her until then. From the maid without rights she becomes the number one attraction of the gathering of villains who had taken advantage of her until then and the enemy number one of the hypocrites and of the jealous wives. The film can be seen as a social farce, in which a heroine, who reminded me of the unforgettable Giulietta Masina from 'Nights of Cabiria', refuses to continue to be a victim and faces the ridiculousness of evil, taking advantage of the vices and weaknesses of the people populating a world that predicts that of Emir Kusturica's films. The lead role is played by Bernadette Lafont, an actress with a rich filmography, an exceptional physique and a talent to match. I also wonder about her, why is she all but forgotten by now? We can see a few more well-known figures from other French films, in a colorful gallery of excellently drawn supporting roles. Georges Moustaki's music and Barbara's voice are additional reasons to enjoy. The film can now be seen in full on youTube and I recommend you watch it, because director Nelly Kaplan and actress Bernadette Lafont are two artists who do not deserve to be forgotten.

Troubles in a small village

[zutterjp48 · 8/10 · 12 July 2019]

Some words about the story.Marie and her mother live apart of the village.Marie works for a lesbian farmer who exploits her totally, besides all the men of the village are harassing her.Her mother dies and then she begings charging for her sexual favors: of course all this respectuous men go to church every Sunday and are speaking badly about her.But her revenge will be very hard because she knows a lot of secrets about these men and their family. In this story about hipocrisy in a small village appears a sympathetic man, André, who shows films in the villages of the region and becomes a confident of Marie. Now some words about Bernadette Laffont (1938-2013), this French actress was "the face of the French New Wave "(she has worked with Truffaut,Chabrol, Jean Eustache), a very good actress. His friend André is interpreted by a very famous French actor Michel Constantin who has always had a great sense of humour.

Curious film

[adrian-43767 · 7/10 · 19 February 2019]

LA FIANCÉE DU PIRATE 's greatest asset is the gorgeous Bernadette Lafont, and certainly the sexual favors she bestows (at a price) on her local "clients" as she avenges the killing of her pet goat, and breaks free of near-slave bondage, are easy on the viewer's eye.

Rather dark humor runs right through the film, but that has always been one of Lafont's trademarks, and she is most comfortable in the nude in all her films. Her mother's death and burial is odd in the extreme, adding to the film's general screwball approach. The script is rather loose - to put it mildly -, the characters all seem to be on the verge of madness, photography is rather shabby, and direction... well, Director Nelly Kaplan seems quite satisfied to just let Lafont do what she likes, and it is plain to see that Lafont had a wonderful time doing the shoot.

Only the French, and perhaps the Italians, could have come up with such a rambling oddity of a sexual story... nothing memorable about it, apart from curvaceous, daring, brazen Lafont. How I love watching her!

Nelly Kaplan used to work with Abel Gance....

[dbdumonteil · 7 August 2005]

...but in 1969,she began to stand on her own two feet.And it was a masterstroke."La fiancée du pirate" was a highly successful movie which has stood the test of time quite well.

Marie (Bernadette Laffont's vulgarity works wonders here) and her mother have always been outcasts ,living outside the village in a hut.Marie works on a farm where the lesbian farmer exploits her sexually and economically,and all the guys around treat her like a whore.When her mother dies,Marie does not want any religious funeral.Then begins Marie's revenge.Now she makes all the men from the village pay for her charms .She will turn all the hypocrite mean bourgeois's life upside town ,and her wholesale massacre comes to a head in the church where a tape recorder reveals the secrets ,warts an all.

Nothing intellectual here,but a good sense of humor.It proves that sex can lead to (local) woman's lib.

Jolly Rogers

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 12 September 2016]

Again this is one you have to attempt to view in the context of the climate in which it was released; in 1969 the Sisterhood would have been all over this like a rash and Nelly Kaplan would have been well on the way to canonization for turning in this tale of a chauvinist's plaything/sex object turning the tables and 'empowering' herself and by extension downtrodden women everywhere. There's just one flaw in the ointment. Marie, aged somewhere around 20 has (presumably) been treated as a doormat in general and sex object for the pleasure of both the men of the village and at least one lesbian landowner. She lives with her mother in squalor, which is a hut with no electricity/running water on the outskirts of the village. One day the mother dies and a light goes on over Marie's head: she's through being the village bike for free, now they'll have to pay to lay. AND THEY DO! Why? She hasn't suddenly become proficient in karate, developed a genius level IQ, or metamorphosed into a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot. Why would these men (and woman) who had been more or less raping her for years suddenly become pussycats and dance to her tune. They Wouldn't, of course; in reality they'd run her out of town on a rail BUT if you can accept this premise this is a neat little satire which hits 90 per cent of the targets it aims at and is funny with it.

a girl like that

[valentinionut · 7/10 · 5 January 2021]

I v seen a girl like that, not so long time ago, and, though, this could be art, in real life someone like that is just a real scum. This one is funny and the fools around her are ridiculous. C est drole, anyway!

A Feminist Fantasy?

[kjs2525 · 10/10 · 23 June 2021]

This is an awesome film which needs to be seen and discussed by critical thinkers, Marxists and feminists in general. After seeing it last night I was fascinated to read reviews on this site, as well as professional film reviews written at the time of the film's release. Most of the reviews are simplistic (usually by men - Canby and then Hoberman 50 years later, both of the NYT), offering little in the way of deep analysis. However, my partner did dig up the best of the lot, a review from 1975 by Linda Green in Jump Cut. Green is able to break down the film in ways beyond my abilities. Just see the film, read the review, and decide for yourself. A profound and fun film. What more could you ask for?

La Fiancée Du Pirate

[def_toned_dave · 8/10 · 26 January 2006]

The story of a 'pirate' woman and social outcast of a provincial village. She turns to prostitution and seduces her clients into ruin. The themes of mockery remain strong, despite the common background of a small hut with bright colors in woodland. Greed and bigotry are present throughout, yet are refreshed with humorous characters and twists in the dialogue. The final blow for sexual and social revenge in humorous sequence struck in the church. The heroine (Bernadette Lafont) dances off down the open road, leaving behind the remains of a strange abstract sculpture of fridges, showers and junk, as she is portrayed as yet another 'free spirit'.

Rural French hypocrisy

[John_Mclaren · 4/10 · 22 November 2005]

Nelly Caplan directs a 1969 tale of rural French hypocrisy, sex and revenge. Well, OK, that makes it sounds better than it is.

Marie lives with her mother, who then dies. She decides to revenge herself on the village for their treatment of her by selling her sexual favours to the men of the village from her woodland shack. Collecting watches appears to be her forte. The women and the priest eventually get outraged. She then gets revenge (of a sort).

Marie is a typical moody but seductive Frenchwoman. Sadly the promise of eroticism is not delivered. The tawdry side to life is suggested rather than explicit, and there is but a smattering of light nudity. However the whole thing is rather harmless when looked at from 21st century eyes. A modest little flick.

A girl decides on vengeance...

[bob998 · 5/10 · 8 December 2012]

...just as Manon des sources had done in Pagnol's film of 1952, to settle some old scores with the bigoted people in a small French town. The priest, the pharmacist, the bistro owner--they're all trying to cheat her in one way or another, and they all find her charms irresistible: no wonder, since she's played by Bernadette Lafont, the sexpot in so many films by Truffaut, Chabrol, Doniol-Valcroze, Molinaro etc. The story is flimsy, Kaplan's direction is loose and somewhat unfocused, and the viewer is left with the sense that this picture did not start a trend in French cinema (Bunuel, after all, was working the same vein at the time), nor is it the culmination of one.

I haven't seen Nelly Kaplan's other films, and don't feel any loss. I think she was more of a theorist than an auteur. The film goes along agreeably enough, and Lafont and Michel Constantin make an attractive couple, but this is hardly essential viewing.