L'enfance du mal

A working-class girl takes refuge in the outhouse of a desirable mansion,where a well-to-do couple lives :he is a judge and they have not got any children.Very soon,the runaway(?) shows up and ,little by little ,interfere with her hosts' life.She tells them she could be helpful as a cook or as a chamber maid.We soon learn that her mother is in jail and that she has a boyfriend she sees from time to time.

The audience expects a love affair between the mature man (or why not the wife?) and the teenager .But the relationship is actually much more complex:the bourgeois couple was never able to have a child and the woman's pastime is making dolls .In this old house,where everybody seems to invent a past for himself,something ominous is slowly happening.The girl is actually some kind of exterminating angel .People who like Georges Simenon's books (and the movies based on them) can have a look.

Anais Demoustier provides a frighteningly believable performance as a 15-year-old who is badly raised and who lacks any confidence whatsoever in the righteousness of the judicial system. She lies about her circumstances to insert herself into the household and lives of a judge and his wife. Then, manipulating all those around her, she forges toward her goal with sociopathic indifference to the collateral damage.

With a supremely professional supporting cast and a simple, classic soundtrack, the ambiance stays just dark enough to keep the viewer worried the entire time without veering into the genre of horror. This is real-world grit, and very satisfying.

Unlike many French films I've seen, this one didn't leave plot points unresolved. It didn't jump forward while giving the viewer no clue to how much time had passed. And the subtitling seemed complete and error-free. Nicely done. I enjoyed it.