La clé sur la porte

The movie was released with a big media hype : "a great director,two great actors,a great writer";by and large ,it did not meet with with a favourable critical reception, even by the leftist ones ,but it did give Yves Boisset his highest commercial success ,whereas his former works, too political and too rebellious ("RAS " "Dupont-Lajoie" "un condé")could only bring censorship about. I have a strong tendency to like this turbulent Boisset best.

And it's sure easy to see why :it's harmless stuff , with cardboard characters , still living ,ten years after, the May 68 Zeitgeist . Annie Girardot resumes her well-known role of a lit teacher , and her character strongly recalls that of "mourir d'aimer " (André Cayatte , 1971),even though she does not fall in love with one of her students (and meets a tragical fate) but for a devoted doctor, fifteen years her junior.

If Boisset resumes his rebel stand,he goes through the motions,even though his sincerity cannot be called into question: to have one of the students write on the school ground "highschool= prison" is not particularly revolutionary, all the more harmless that these rebels do not come from poor milieus ; to be long-haired does not mean political generosity :never these spoilt kids talk about a square deal for the underprivileged ,the underdogs of the society they are not part of ; they complain for lack of tenderness, they put the blame on the parents (after Boisset quickly shows a caricature of the bourgeois folks ). The unemployment ,which had become the biggest problem of the seventies,is hardly skimmed over.

The arrival of a new problem student amounts to nothing ;the problems of this teacher ,estranged from her husband who lives in Canada ,with her daughter ,are insignificant ;the relationship with the principal is just what you expect (the generous teacher insists our work is to arm them for life ,but their life,not yours or mine: crystal clear,huh?)

Although at the top of the bill, Patrick Dewaere appears in about half of the movie; he and Girardot are so talented actors that the scenes between them are more endearing than the self-conscious teacher/students relationship ; all the good moments rest on their shoulders. A devoted doctor ,with Girardot in tow as an impromptu nurse ,they make an endearing couple. An extra star for them.

NB: Marie Cardinal , the writer of the book on which the movie is based ,thought it was rubbish.

I love these two actors very much and they are so very good in this even though the Story -both in the book and in the movie- didn't move me a bit. I was a teenager in France at about the same time, this really feels very bourgeois from Paris, thus different in every possible ways to the way most teenagers were experiencing this era in other parts of France outside of the capital. Marie Cardinal hated the movie, she probably felt betrayed as it is quite caricatural. To be fair the material in her book is quite weak, no deepness in any of her character, even her fictional self seems to be in a blind spot.

It didn't age very well either.

But with the old cars, Paris streets, clothes, smoking everywhere, there is an undeniable documentary quality to it which makes the film bearable at the end.