The Adolescent (film)
The Adolescent (French: L'Adolescente) is a French drama film directed by Jeanne Moreau in 1978, released January 1979. It was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.[2][3] Set deep in the French countryside just before the start of World War II, it shows the often idyllic life of a remote village in the mountainous Auvergne where a family from Paris have come to spend a holiday with relations, an occasion which marks a coming-of-age for their daughter Marie, the adolescent of the title.
The Adolescent | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jeanne Moreau |
Produced by | Tarak Ben Ammar Philippe Dussart |
Written by | Jeanne Moreau Henriette Jelinek |
Starring | Simone Signoret Francis Huster Laetitia Chauveau Edith Clever Jacques Weber Hugues Quester |
Music by | Philippe Sarde |
Cinematography | Pierre Gautard |
Edited by | Colette Leloup |
Distributed by | Parafrance (France) |
Release date | 24 January 1979 |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Box office | $3.2 million[1] |
Plot
In the summer of 1939, Jean takes his family for a stay with his widowed mother. He works as a butcher in Paris and with him is his Dutch wife Eva and their only child Marie, who is 12. Marie falls in love with the local doctor Alexandre, a Jewish bachelor aged 30. He enjoys her lively and intelligent company until late one night she comes to the house where he lives alone and offers herself, upon which he has to reject her. Shortly after this she undergoes her first period and is taught by her grandmother to be more careful with men. Her place in Alexandre's life is taken by her mother, who begins a full-blown affair while Jean is away helping to bring in the harvest. The grandmother teaches Marie that this is something which can happen, but one must not talk about it and must seek to reconcile the married couple. When Jean comes back, Alexandre keeps away until at the village festival he asks Eva for a dance, upon which Jean punches him and a brawl develops. Everything ends with the outbreak of war.
Cast
- Simone Signoret - the grandmother
- Jacques Weber - Jean, her son & father of Marie
- Edith Clever - Eva, his wife & mother of Marie
- Laetitia Chauveau - Marie
- Francis Huster – Alexandre, the locum doctor
- Jean-François Balmer - André, the carpenter
- Roger Blin – Romain, the blacksmith
- Juliette Brac – Mélanie, the blacksmith's wife
- Hugues Quester – Fred, the blacksmith's son
- Frank Muth - François, 'the innocent'
- Maurice Baquet - Jules, the roadman
- Nadine Basile - Rose, the wife of Jules
- Françoise Bette – Violette, the grandmother's servant
- Michel Blanc - Monsieur Bertin
- Bérangère Bonvoisin – Thérèse, the mayor's daughter
- Élisabeth Margoni – Mademoiselle Gaby
References
- http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=7686
- "IMDB.com: Awards for The Adolescent". imdb.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
- "L'Adolescente". unifrance.org. Retrieved 2014-03-08.