Le bateau sur l'herbe

Essentially known as Polanski's screenwriter (the famous director collaborated for the screenplay here),Gerard Brach made two movies in the early seventies:"La Maison" (feat Michel Simon) and " Le Bateau Sur l'Herbe ".Well acted by Jean-Pierre Cassel,Truffaut's protégée Claude Jade and British John McEnnery (not dubbed) who manages quite well in French -even if he bestows Hamlet's monologue on us- and stays very natural when he's looking for a word or wondering whether " broken mirrors bring bad luck over here too" .

Two boys are building a ship which is supposed to take them to Easter Island ;one of them has a girlfriend .

At first ,it might look like a mundane love triangle ;but further acquaintance shows that there's more to the picture than meets the eye.

The boys come from very different classes :David is a prole whereas oliver lives in a desirable mansion ,with a chic mother (Valentina Cortese is unbearable ,the only major flaw of this effort);when David asks him to declare him ,for he is his employee,terse answer:"it's for poor people ";David is ill-at-ease during the party with Oliver's mother's friends .

Brach creates a strange atmosphere with his ship on the lawn ,and its almost disturbing figurehead ,particularly when he films it at night.And something bizarre is in the air:don't we learn that Oliver's father committed suicide because of his mother?There are many details which foreshadow the final tragedy .

Like this?try these.....

"Noz W Wodzie" /"Knife in the water "(Roman Polanski, 1962): had the boys had their vow, their story could have continued a bit like its co-screenwriter's first feature-length film .

"Plein Soleil" (René Clément,1959)