Film info: La Drôlesse
Film Information
Original Title | La Drôlesse |
---|---|
English Title | The Hussy |
Director | Jacques Doillon |
Country | ![]() |
Year | 1979 |
Format | 35 mm |
Colour | |
Duration | 90 min |
Cast:
- Madeleine Desdevises, Claude Hébert, Paulette Lahaye, Juliette Le Cauchoix, Fernand Decaen
Production:
- Guión: Jacques Doillon
- Fotografía: Philippe Rousselot
- Montaje: Laurent Quaglio
- Producción: Danièle Delorme, Yves Robert
Synopsis
Released a few months after The Crying Woman, this delicately poetic film provided the first important recognition for Doillon when he won both the Young Cinema and the Best Director awards at Cannes. The anecdote is typical of the filmmaker: a twenty-some guy with family issues –and others as well– kidnaps an eleven year-old girl (the disturbingly sensual Madeleine Desdevises, who died at age 15) who is as lonely as unloved by her parents as he is. Against his initial intentions, a love relationship grows between them, which is doomed to be misunderstood and unaccepted by society (and even, in a way, by themselves: when the girl, tired of hiding in an attic all day, asks him if he will give her a child, he answers: “That would be immoral”). With some connection to William Wyler’s The Collector, Doillon is not trying to use François and Mado’s story to deliver an allegation, and certainly not to épater le bourgeois. It’s simply about showing, almost like in a fable –at times absurd, at times terrible, but always moving– one of the infinite and mysterious ways of love.
Date and Times