El padrastro

Yes, I am aware of the fact the rather vulgar and tasteless subject line entirely misfits the overall tone of this film, but when else am I going to have the chance to use this clichéd saying in a review? "Stepfather" is a provocative and mildly controversial "Lolita"-themed drama, but with a healthy sense of humor and extremely likable characters. Britney Spears provided the best one-line plot description imaginable for this film: Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman. After the sudden and accidental death of her mother, beautiful 14-year-old Marion insists on staying with her manic depressed stepfather instead of returning to her natural father. The girl soon openly confesses Rémi she has romantic feelings for him and doesn't really make it a secret that she wants to sleep with him. Rémi tries very hard (honestly, he does) to resist the temptation, but what's a lonely man to do when a scantily clad young gal keeps throwing herself at him and continues to sneak into his bed at night? Most of the – admittedly overlong - film focuses on Rémi fighting, accepting and regretting his own feelings towards Marion, but still the film never really feels boring and there are plenty of neat details to keep you pleased. The narrative, for example, is ingenious as several characters (including Rémi) explain the story whilst facing the camera. He works as unsuccessful pianist in a restaurant and the camera often pans around him as he's narrating his own life with people dining in the background. It's also quite remarkable how the script never reverts to being gratuitous exploitation, even though all the themes hint towards that direction. A truly ravishing and often barely dressed minor literally offers herself at this potent, thirty-something guy, and yet there are no explicit sex sequences or gratuitous insinuations being made. Ariel Besse (16 at the time and a terrific actress) strips fully naked a couple of times, but all the sex & nudity sequences are elegantly presented and not the least bit offensive. Patrick Dewaere is great as well and it was quite a shock to discover he committed suicide shortly after the release of this film. According to several sources, including the IMDb, the actors struggled with depressions and mental torture for years and years. The only consolation he had was that his own mental condition gave an even deeper dimension to his character in "Stepfather". Recommended.

Blier is not my favorite French director. Too much irony and too much Godard-a-like in his films. But this one is very different. It's written with great intelligence and, like in most of the French Cinema, it had a wonderful sense of reality. The subject is touchy : a man falls in love with a young teenager (14 years old). But here, we have not the classic Lolita. The young girl looks realistic, and so is her feelings. Superb acting and a great musical score.

Separated from his stepdaughter, raised for eight years as his own, after the girl's mother dies in a car crash, a pianist begins to mistake his fatherly affection towards her for romantic love, which causes a problem since the girl feels the same way and is set on taking her mother's place in this controversial Bertrand Blier film. The movie is actually far less sleazy than it might sound from the outset; there is relatively little in the way of nudity and lovemaking with the film instead focused on the mental dynamics between the pair, neither quite sure how properly express their strong feelings for one another. Things seem to get even more interesting as the girl's birth father catches on to how intimate the pair have become since the mother's death, and yet the film's meandering second half does the material no justice. There is so much build-up and tension leading up to the pair taking things too far that the film has trouble refocusing afterwards. That said, the movie ends on a pitch perfect suggestive final note. The gliding cinematography courtesy of the legendary Sacha Vierny is also excellent throughout with mirrored surfaces nicely favoured for a film about two individuals forced to reflect upon themselves. Blier additionally uses an interesting technique of having a handful of characters talk to the camera to provide narration, though the inconsistency of the narration is a tad jarring.

A gorgeously photographed and steamy tale of forbidden passion.

Boasting a superb lead performance by Patrick DeWaere as a young Frenchman battling to stifle the seductive advances of his breathtakingly beautiful step-daughter, it is grounded by fascinating character detail and an intelligent, focused script that is deeply interested in the complexities of love and desire.

Ariel Besse is the step-daughter and she is a bubbling, nubile cauldron of curiosity and mischief.

Sacha Vierny's moody photography is worthy of a coffee table hardcover and Philip Sarde's score is perfection.

A delicious, provocative, mature tale of sexual politics.

I really love films such as Beau Pere. When you read the description of the film (a man in his 30's has a love affair with his 14-yr. old stepdaughter after his wife dies), you kinda think that it's going to be a study about some middle-aged pervert engaging in immoral acts of both incest and pedophilia and that in the end the movie will be some kind of moral tale about the evils of such behavior.

But surprisingly, the film engages you, and paralyzes your initial judgements. It pulls you into its world and somehow you become fascinated by the 14-year old girl and slowly begin to sympathize with the stepfather. The performance of Ariel Besse is so beautiful. She has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with the world, in love, sex, relationships, etc.. She doesn't try to be cute (refreshing) and overly charming. As the movie progresses, she seems to have aged before your eyes, (though physically she remains 14). and suddenly, concepts of right and wrong become blurred. I've often read that in the artistic tradition of the French, the concept of morality does not deal specifically with what is right and wrong, persay.. but what is right and wrong as life is lived. Morality comes in the decisions you make as you live it, not as a pre-condition. It's hard to explain... but as the great french director Renoir once said......everyone has his reasons.

P.S. I wish Bertrand Blier would make more movies. The subjects in his movies such as this and others made over 20 years ago (Les Valseuses, Get out you Handkerchiefs, Too Beautiful for you, etc..) would shock people even by today's standards. But because he gives so much humanity to his characters, these taboo subjects can be seen in a different slant... and essentially isn't that what film, or art for that matter, is really all about.