Éducation anglaise

I first read about this movie in Ramsey Campbell's hilarious and colorfully titled article "Pulsating Posteriors and Masochistic Misses", which surveys the "schoolgirl chastisement" films--apparently a popular genre of films in Britain in the 1980's all centering around ridiculously over-age "schoolgirls" being spanked and paddled on their bare butts while they squirm and unconvincingly protest. This is a French version of one of those films, and leave it to the French to make an arty, big-budget affair with a genuine period setting and way too much plot to get in the way of the spanking. (It's probably safe to say that this is the "Citizen Kane" of "schoolgirl spanking" films).

It starts with a couple in bed at a hotel when the woman's husband bursts in and shoots them both and himself. It turns out these were the parents of the protagonist "Sylvie" and she is now an "orphan" (which is all patently ridiculous as the actress playing "Sylvia" looks to be about twenty and the actress playing her "mother" only a few years older). She goes to stay with her godfather, but in a very un-French manner he is much more interested in playing around with his homely maids than in caring for the nubile "Sylvie", so he sends her to a very strict boarding school (which apparently caters exclusively to sexy 20-year-old girls like "Sylvie"). The school is supposedly modeled on the "English"-style of education (thus the title), but it seems more modeled after the Marquis de Sade. Every minor infraction is grounds for a bared-ass whipping or worse. Though no one seems to notice, the assistant principal is an obvious male transvestite hiding out at the school for some reason. After much suffering, "Sylvie" eventually decides if she can't beat 'em, join 'em (and THEN she can beat 'em). She gives up her virginity to the transvestite and becomes the "head girl" (in more ways than one)and gets to mete out discipline to her fellow students (and they apparently need A LOT of discipline). The moral here is very much in the spirit of DeSade--an innocent "Justine", abused by everyone, eventually becomes a "Juliette" who prospers by wallowing in vice.

If you're looking for a simple spanking flick, you're going to be disappointed by the plot and all the digressions. But personally I find ALL fetish movies boring and repetitive after awhile regardless of the appeal of the fetish. If you're more of a polymorphous pervert though this also has straight sex scenes, lots of lesbianism, and interesting shower scenes where gaggles of naked girls climb en masse in and out of a single tub while their fellow students or the elderly caretakers pours water (or milk?!) on them. There a tasteless scene where a girl is made to strip and act like a dog, but it's mostly tasteless because she's a Jewish girl whose parents have "disappeared" (this is set right before WWII)without paying her tuition, leaving her to be singled out for extra abuse. There's also a downright bizarre "chariot-racing" scene with some of the girls having to be the "horses" complete with whips and bridles.

I actually wouldn't recommend this either to SERIOUS fetishists or to humorless puritans, but it's pretty entertaining in its own weird way.

The French seem to know how to make sex comedies such as this although it should be noted that there is not much comedy here. Writer/director Jean-Claude Roy has gone to town on this one with high production values such as period settings and props. The title supposedly refers to the English method of education with copious beatings at the most minor of misdemeanours - maybe he took Tom Brown's Schooldays to heart or perhaps he saw the old British TV series, Whacko! Anyone remember Jimmy Edwards? Anyway, into this school comes recently orphaned Sylvie Dumarcay (Obaya Roberts).

Sylvie has been sent to this school by her uncle in order to get her out of the way so he can pursue his libidinous lifestyle but that does not mean that Sylvie is immune from his attention: watch as he helps Sylvie down from the train - no opportunity is missed by this uncle. The school is also a hotbed of passion amongst the girls who all seem to be played by voluptuous twenty year olds. The cruelty knows no bounds here with one girl having to behave like a dog and a chariot race in which the girls are hitched up to chariots and made to race round an arena. What is also strange is the deputy head who is the most obvious transvestite ever committed to screen and yet nobody notices. A lot of strange things go on at this school but the French have a way of filming these things. Give this one a go.

Despite the title, the action of this film takes place entirely in France and none of the characters are English. In the Paris of 1935, the teenage Sylvie is left an orphan when her father, discovering his wife in flagrante delicto with her lover, shoots them both dead before blowing his own brains out. Because hers is a wealthy family, these deaths leave Sylvie not only an orphan but also an heiress, but she is packed off to a strict "English-style" boarding school by her corrupt guardian, who hopes to use the income from her inheritance to fund his own debauched lifestyle.

The title refers to the apparent French belief that all English boarding schools are run according to an educational philosophy which gives a greater emphasis to strict discipline than to academic achievement, although this supposed "discipline" is more often than not merely a cover for sadism and sexual perversion, on the part of both staff and pupils. (I was not educated at boarding school myself, but I doubt if those of my acquaintance who were would recognise this description of their schooldays). Once at school, the initially shy and innocent young Sylvie is quickly introduced to the pleasures of lesbian love by her friend Claire. This relationship is a loving and gentle one, but when Claire leaves the school Sylvie graduates to the harder and more dubious pleasures of sado-masochism. A sub-plot deals with the headmistress's love-affair with one of her supposedly female colleagues, who is really a man in drag. (This must count as one of the least successful attempts at female impersonation in screen history. Robin Williams made a better woman in "Mrs Doubtfire").

I am grateful to the previous reviewer who drew my attention to the existence of the "schoolgirl spanking" genre of film-making. I had not come across this genre until I stumbled across "Education Anglaise" on television recently, although I suppose I should not be surprised by its existence. Spanking certainly seems to be this film's raison d'etre; my summary of the plot above was written only to meet IMDb's "minimum length" requirement. I doubt if the film's target audience will take much interest in the plot; even the film-makers treated it very perfunctorily as little more than a framework for the spanking scenes. Those who like seeing schoolgirls being spanked will enjoy this film. Or, perhaps I should say, those who like seeing not-particularly-attractive twenty-something actresses being spanked while pretending (not very successfully) to be teenage schoolgirls will enjoy this film. Those who don't (and I fall into that category) most certainly won't. If this is the "Citizen Kane" of schoolgirl chastisement, I dread to think what the lesser entries in the catalogue must be like. 1/10