A Very Curious Girl
| A Very Curious Girl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Nelly Kaplan |
| Screenplay by | Anne Fontaine Claude Makovski Jacques Serguine Michel Fabre |
| Produced by | Moshé Mizrahi |
| Starring | Bernadette Lafont Georges Géret |
| Cinematography | Jean Badal |
| Edited by | Nelly Kaplan |
| Music by | Georges Moustaki |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
A Very Curious Girl (French: La Fiancée du pirate) is a 1969 French comedy-drama film directed, edited and co-written by Nelly Kaplan.[1] [2][3] Other English titles are "Dirty Mary" and "Pirate's Fiancée".[4][5]
Plot
Marie is a young woman who lives in sheer poverty in the fictional village and commune of Tellier (an allusion to La Maison Tellier) with her mother, a woman of obscure origins suspected to be a Romanichel sorcerer, and her pet buck. Marie and her mother are despised by the locals although Marie is also a sexual object for them, including her lesbian boss Irène. One day, when her mother dies after a hit-and-run accident and the locals do not even care to bury her, Marie decides that things have to change and starts to charge people who have sex with her. Eventually, she plans to take revenge on those people who take advantage of her.
Cast
- Bernadette Lafont as Marie
- Georges Géret as Gaston Duvalier, the village guard
- Michel Constantin as André, the projectionist
- Julien Guiomar as the Duke
- Jean Parédès as Monsieur Paul, the herbalist
- Francis Lax as Émile, the commune council member
- Claire Maurier as Irène, Marie's boss
- Marcel Pérès as Grandpa
- Pascal Mazzotti : Abbé Dard
- Jacques Masson : Hippolyte Duvalier, Gaston's son
- Henry Czarniak : Julien, Irène's farmhand
- Jacques Marin : Félix Lechat, the café owner
- Micha Bayard : Mélanie « La Goulette » Lechat, Félix's wife
- Fernand Berset : Jeanjean, the lingerie salesman
- Renée Duncan : Fifine (Delphine), Émile's wife
- Gilberte Géniat : Rose, the Duke's wife
- Claire Olivier : Marie's mother
- Louis Malle : Jésus, the Duke's Spanish farmhand
- Claude Makovski : Victor, the shop owner
Score
Georges Moustaki's soundtrack was released in the same year as the film.[4]
- Histoire du Cirque (1:22)
- Duo (2:21)
- La Mort (2:08)
- Pierre et Nicole (2:44)
- Thème de Franca (1:37)
- A Lisbonne (fado) (1:37)
- Retour à L'hôtel (2:18)
- Le Scandale / Suite (11:40)
- Mona (1:31)
- Anne et Claude au Musée (2:27)
- Le Désespoir de Muriel (3:52)
- La Déclaration d'Amour (2:25)
- La Rupture (3.46)
- Epilogue (2:25)
- Une Petite Ile (1:30)
- Anne et Claude (2:05)
- Moi, Je Me Balance (2:46)
- Marche de Marie (2:35)
Critical reception
The New York Times listed "A curious girl" as one of Bernadette Lafont's most notable films.[6] The website filmfanatic.org put this film into the category "Foreign Gem". [7] The Guardian mentions "A curious girl" in her obituary and states Lafont's performance had been "brilliant".[8]
References
- ^ "La fiancée du pirate". virtual-history.com. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ "A very curious girl". unifrance.org. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ "Nelly Kaplan's English Biography". oswego.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
- ^ a b "Fiancée Du Pirate, La (1969)". soundtrackcollector.com. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ "Pirate's Fiancée". screenrush.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ Knorr, Katherine (1997-11-15). "Bernadette Lafont:Unwinding the Reels". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ "Very Curious Girl, A (1969)". filmfanatic.org. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
- ^ Bergan, Ronald (2013-07-26). "Bernadette Lafont obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
