L'année des méduses

Almost every review for this film asks: is this just an excuse to show beautiful topless women? If everyone keeps asking that it's because it is an excuse to show topless women. The only dramatic tension in this soufflé is while Valerie take her top or not? After a while this disappears since she's always topless for most of the film. The story is risible. The mother basically smokes and drinks throughout the movie (and takes her top off as well). The dramatic denouement at the end (don't worry, I won't spoil it) is so underwhelming and filmed in an uninspired manner that you only then realize that the filmmakers were truly only interested in showing topless women. They were too lazy to come up with something else. I like Valerie Kaprisky. There's something bold about her (she's clearly allergic to clothes) but when she has clothes on, one sorta has a hard time noticing her. It's then that one realizes she's ordinary.

I choose that movie spontaneously. I never heard that movie before and don't know any actor or actress but when I watch I aware that the movie totally touches the emotions about love and relationships belong the family, lovers and humans. On the other hand the time has chosen specifically. Because the side of the sea during the summer love is alive every time. So I love the subject and I started to follow the director's other movies. I believe that I can really find very important character analysis in other movies too. Entirely when you watch that movie just focus on the relationship. Absolutely you will find very unique behaviours. Keep going 👏🏼

Not for everyone: one could almost dismiss it as a soft sexploitation movie from the eighties. But no.

This is about an obsessive little girl who is turning into a woman. The characters around her are here to reflect the wicked light she is shining, and emphasize facets of her personality, as she is wrecking havoc around her.

It is all then about the sexual desires of women and men. How they cheat. Whom they love. What it is that they want. What they would do to get it. Only one character is "not normal " in this movie, and this is the scary part: all the others could be us to some degree.

One flaw in this movie: the voice-over on two occasions. Obviously the director could not find a way could convey the message. Pity. Otherwise, it would have a perfect little venomous movie.

This is only a passable thriller I guess, but I found it interesting for several reasons. First, it is surprisingly trashy and unpretentious for a French movie. While the Italians and the Spanish have made tons of movies like this, the French have always seemed more hesitant to make flat-out genre or exploitation movies without a lot of high-art pretensions. This film is a trashy "lethal Lolita"-type flick along the lines of "Pretty Poison" or "The Crush" (or Italian equivalents like "Peccati di gioventu"). The cinematography, however, is quite impressive--up to the high French standards of arthouse films like "Pauline on the Beach" or "One Wild Moment". It helps that, like those movies, it was filmed in a cinematographer's paradise, the south of France. And, of course, it also features the very, um, photogenic Valerie Kaprisky (who is usually topless and often completely nude) as the lethal Lolita. Kaprisky was in some pretty interesting French movies like this and "La Femme Publique" before she was no doubt black-balled for appearing in the horrible Hollywood remake of "Breathless" with Richard Gere. This one is pretty hard to find, but is definitely worth looking for.

There is a much bigger story here than I'd spelled out in the script. Think about it. Don't be distracted by the nudity and undressing. That's not the story. Consider how did Chris get to know certain people when she was 16. How did her mom not know? Why is Dad acting so detached? Put all that together and the real story comes out. No, you are not led by the hand. No, you are not explained the most intriguing part of this drama. And no, you shouldn't act as though a topless beach club is risque in France. Just down from this club is a fully nude beach club. This is normal in Saint Tropez. No no no! Don't be distracted. Dig into this story and find the true villains. The first thing I said to my wife when the movie ended: now here's a movie that gives people a lot to consider when it's over.