La novia del pirata

Some words about the story.Marie and her mother live apart of the village.Marie works for a lesbian farmer who exploits her totally, besides all the men of the village are harassing her.Her mother dies and then she begings charging for her sexual favors: of course all this respectuous men go to church every Sunday and are speaking badly about her.But her revenge will be very hard because she knows a lot of secrets about these men and their family. In this story about hipocrisy in a small village appears a sympathetic man, André, who shows films in the villages of the region and becomes a confident of Marie. Now some words about Bernadette Laffont (1938-2013), this French actress was "the face of the French New Wave "(she has worked with Truffaut,Chabrol, Jean Eustache), a very good actress. His friend André is interpreted by a very famous French actor Michel Constantin who has always had a great sense of humour.

I v seen a girl like that, not so long time ago, and, though, this could be art, in real life someone like that is just a real scum. This one is funny and the fools around her are ridiculous. C est drole, anyway!

...just as Manon des sources had done in Pagnol's film of 1952, to settle some old scores with the bigoted people in a small French town. The priest, the pharmacist, the bistro owner--they're all trying to cheat her in one way or another, and they all find her charms irresistible: no wonder, since she's played by Bernadette Lafont, the sexpot in so many films by Truffaut, Chabrol, Doniol-Valcroze, Molinaro etc. The story is flimsy, Kaplan's direction is loose and somewhat unfocused, and the viewer is left with the sense that this picture did not start a trend in French cinema (Bunuel, after all, was working the same vein at the time), nor is it the culmination of one.

I haven't seen Nelly Kaplan's other films, and don't feel any loss. I think she was more of a theorist than an auteur. The film goes along agreeably enough, and Lafont and Michel Constantin make an attractive couple, but this is hardly essential viewing.

Nelly Caplan directs a 1969 tale of rural French hypocrisy, sex and revenge. Well, OK, that makes it sounds better than it is.

Marie lives with her mother, who then dies. She decides to revenge herself on the village for their treatment of her by selling her sexual favours to the men of the village from her woodland shack. Collecting watches appears to be her forte. The women and the priest eventually get outraged. She then gets revenge (of a sort).

Marie is a typical moody but seductive Frenchwoman. Sadly the promise of eroticism is not delivered. The tawdry side to life is suggested rather than explicit, and there is but a smattering of light nudity. However the whole thing is rather harmless when looked at from 21st century eyes. A modest little flick.

This is an awesome film which needs to be seen and discussed by critical thinkers, Marxists and feminists in general. After seeing it last night I was fascinated to read reviews on this site, as well as professional film reviews written at the time of the film's release. Most of the reviews are simplistic (usually by men - Canby and then Hoberman 50 years later, both of the NYT), offering little in the way of deep analysis. However, my partner did dig up the best of the lot, a review from 1975 by Linda Green in Jump Cut. Green is able to break down the film in ways beyond my abilities. Just see the film, read the review, and decide for yourself. A profound and fun film. What more could you ask for?