Therese and Isabelle

the author of the book, by the same title, should not have let her name be used for this movie. if you have read the book, this movie takes such a liberal interpretation of the actual events in the book and its spirit that the movie and book seem to have quite little in common except the title and some superficial details. the movie adds nothing, in terms of artistic merit, to the book's own literary achievement.

for those who have not read the book: you will also be disappointed. not only does the plot move at an incredibly slow pace, it doesn't offer anything more while it is moving slowly (like character development, for example). some viewers might be entertained by some of the graphic lesbian love scenes later on in the movie, but you might as well watch a showtime special for the stuff they show in therese and isabelle--its fairly tame and not imaginative at all.

I originally saw this film in 1968 at a pre-release press screening. It was in (apparently dubbed) French with English subtitles. I found the film charming, with a wonderful music score by Georges Auric. I subsequently saw the film at a local theater - in (apparently dubbed) English. The film had been cut with much of the lengthy erotic scenes trimmed. The dubbed dialogue was not only delivered poorly, but the banality of it was taxing. The French language version with subtitles lent a poetic effect to the film, although if I understood French perhaps it would have sounded as banal as the English.

I must admit, when I read the description of the genre on Netflix as "Steamy Romance" I was a little bit skeptical. "Steamy"? In a movie from 1968?? I was prepared for disappointment. And when I realized it was shot entirely in black & white, I knew my erotic hopes were dashed.

Boy, was I wrong! Not only does this film have all of the elements of a steamy romance -- the discovery of first love, fear of the secret being found out, a sudden unexpected end -- but at times this movie was downright erotic. You will soon forget that it is shot in black & white. The cinematography deserves every accolade it has received over the years. And the performances from the two stars (Essy Persson and Anna Gael) are intense and memorable. OK, so they're both in their mid twenties trying to play school girls. It's 1968. Do you really expect teenagers from the '60s to be able to effectively explore a lesbian love story like this? Many adult women were still trying to come to grips with their sexuality back then. Anyone looking for real teens here is expecting too much.

I think this movie was way ahead of its time. The level of eroticism was an unexpected pleasure; yet it still managed to leave a lot to the imagination, opting instead to give us poetic descriptions to add to what we were shown.

I have no doubt lesbians will identify with the characters here. As for you straight guys who love watching lesbians in action: Although it won't be all you expect, I don't think you'll be too, too disappointed.

It's kind of interesting reading some of the negative raps on this movie. Yes, it is in black and white--so is "Citizen Kane" and any number of other classic movies. The girls are a little long in the tooth to be schoolgirls and the nude scenes are pretty tame (but there certainly are some in the unedited version). However, considering that hot lesbian action between actual schoolgirls is a no-no even today in most countries, it's not surprising they didn't try to pull it off in 1968. Besides, it was necessary that at least one of the actresses be older as she had to play the same character as both a schoolgirl and a middle-aged woman.

I'm sure this movie is not exactly like the book (few movies are), but I was impressed at how it managed to combine memorable passages from the book with discreet and tasteful visuals to create some truly startling scenes. (And this is no mean feat--witness Adrian Lyne's ham-handed attempts at this in his recent adaptation of the literary classic "Lolita").This movie also deals with a lot of themes that were pretty taboo at the time--pre-marital sex, lesbianism, female masturbation--in a tasteful, non-exploitative way, which many people probably won't appreciate today living in the age of Howard Stern. This movie certainly inspired a lot of later movies-- "Don't Deliver Us from Evil", "Heavenly Creatures", and the more recent "Lost and Delirious". It's less melodramatic than any of these--nobody commits suicide or is brutally murdered-- but then again most real-life adolescent lesbian relationships don't end in murder or suicide. If you're a Howard Stern fan you probably will be bored with this, but if you don't object to subtle, classy European art films this is pretty alright.

It was a serious attempt to show the developing sexuality of two schoolgirls and did not try to exploit its fact… Even by today's standards, the film is interesting and provocative…

Therese and Isabelle are both attending the same girl's school… Therese is energetic, intelligent, and becomes a mentor for the innocent, naive, sweet Isabelle… She guides her through a number of exotic experiences, including a trip through an exclusive brothel, into her first lesbian liaison, and indirectly into her first heterosexual experience…

The film does not exploit any sex, nor is there an abundance of nudity... The imagery is effective, but sometimes the camera lingers too long, and the story goes slowly…

The director, Radley Metzger, went on to make a number of explicit erotic films under the name of Henry Paris… He always has extremely detailed stories, good acting, and very high standards of cinematography...

Artistically, however, this is perhaps his most complete… His later attempts supplied for entertainment, whereas "Therese and Isabelle" was a study into the nature of youthful eroticism...