Don't Deliver Us from Evil
| Don't Deliver Us from Evil | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Joël Séria |
| Written by | Joël Séria |
| Produced by | Bernard Legargeant Ken Legargeant Romaine Legargeant Joël Séria |
| Starring | Jeanne Goupil Catherine Wagener |
| Cinematography | Marcel Combes |
| Edited by | Philippe Gosselet |
| Music by | Claude Germain Dominique Ney |
Production companies | Société Générale de Production Productions Tanit |
| Distributed by | Antony Balch Films (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 101 minutes[1] |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Don't Deliver Us from Evil (French: Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal) is a 1971 French film directed by Joël Séria. It is loosely based on the Parker–Hulme murder case of 1954.
Plot
Anne de Boissy and Lore Fournier are two adolescent Angevin girls who stay at a Catholic boarding school. Both have affluent and conservative families living in the countryside. Anne and Lore quickly become friends. They spend most of their time reading poems about the beauty of death, mocking their classmates and teachers, and engaging in vicious pranks and petty theft, believing that together they are special and untouchable, a fact that seems more and more true to them when they always manage to escape detection and punishment.
When Anne's parents take a long trip and leave Anne behind during summer vacation, Lore secretly moves into their château with Anne, where they become lovers and their pranks escalate. The girls set fire to the home of the local cowherd, Émile, as punishment for his sexual leering over schoolgirls, and they kill all the pet birds of their school's mentally-challenged groundskeeper, Léon. Stealing sacramental bread from church, the girls prepare the abandoned chapel at the château for a Black Mass in which they wed themselves to Satan, promising more wicked works in his name.
One night, a motorist runs out of gasoline near the château. The girls invite him in, offer him alcohol, and begin to behave seductively toward him. At first he is confused, then, as he grows more drunk, eager. Lore continues the seduction, only to be terrified when the motorist attempts to rape her. Anne walks in on the scene and murders the man, and the two girls conceal the body.
Police later find the motorist's abandoned car and suspect foul play. A detective arrives at the château to inquire if the motorist stopped there, but is suspicious when the girls behave nervously and refuse to tell them where their parents are. The girls in turn become convinced that the detective knows what they have done and plan a suicide pact, convinced they will go to Hell and be rewarded by Satan for their service. At a school recital, the girls read a poem by Baudelaire before lighting themselves on fire as the audience watches in horror.
Cast
- Jeanne Goupil as Anne de Boissy
- Catherine Wagener as Lore Fournier
- Bernard Dhéran as motorist
- Gérard Darrieu as Émile
- Marc Dudicourt as almoner
- Michel Robin as Léon
- Véronique Silver as Countess de Boissy
- Jean-Pierre Helbert as Count de Boissy
- Nicole Mérouze as Mrs. Fournier
- Henri Poirier as Mr Fournier
- Serge Frédéric as priest
- René Berthier as Gustave
- Frédéric Nort
- Jean-Daniel Ehrmann
See also
- Les Chants de Maldoror, which the girls read from and reference.
- Les Fleurs du mal, from which the girls chant various poems before dying.
- Heavenly Creatures, another film based on the same murder case.
References
- ^ "DON'T DELIVER US FROM EVIL (X)". British Board of Film Classification. 1971-12-01. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
External links
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