L’Effrontée
March 23rd, 2007
In 1985, Charlotte Gainsbourg (Lemming, The Science of Sleep) was just thirteen and cute as a button. L’Effrontée is only her third movie, and she owns it. The French vacation coming-of-age tale is a venerable subgenre (we’re fans of Girls Can’t Swim and Pauline at the Beach but not Fat Girl)–and this is a very fine addition. Charlotte plays the motherless daughter of a handyman who can’t afford to go out of town. Stranded, she enters the world of a perfect piano prodigy (Clothilde Baudon) while a creepy sailor twice her age (Jean-Philippe Écoffey) tries to buy her beer and her sickly friend Lulu (Julie Glenn) gets sicker. Like in many French films (Safe Conduct always comes to mind), drama is implied without having to be carried to some over-the-top climax. L’Effrontee is a lovely evocation of how much it can stink to be a teenager.
L’effrontée. Claude Miller, 1985. ****
After the jump, Europop madness, Serge Gainsbourg vs. Whitney Houston, and Jane Birkin singing Di Doo Dah.
