Stop Calling Me Baby!

The 1970's was a different time and France is definitely a different place. Still, I found it a little hard to believe this movie where a vapid American model (Sydne Rome) goes to bed with an overweight French truck-driver five minutes after he picks her up on the street, and then falls madly in love with him (oh, those dashing overweight French truckers!). Meanwhile, the model's teenage sister (Jodie Foster--yes, THE Jodie Foster) wants to lose her virginity, and the only opportunity she has to do this in all of Paris apparently is an unnamed sex-crazed, middle-aged American writer (Henry Miller perhaps?), or the truck-driver's doofus friend, who is referred to as a "cop" on the English-dubbed soundtrack, but really seems to be more of a half-assed private detective. (Of course, on the side he's ALSO a successful pornographic writer).

This is marginally better than Jody's other rattling Euro-skeleton-in-the-closet "In the Beach House", but it won't make anyone forget about "Taxi Driver" or "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane". And the Academy might seriously consider taking back at least one of her Oscars if they were to hear her deliver some of her lines here, like when her sister's chubby Gallic lover accidentally walks into her room naked and she says, "Ohh, I don't think it will fit!" (And, yes, she not only dubbed her own English voice here, but also sang a couple of the French-language songs).

Not that this movie is THAT unseemly. The director "Eric Lehung" sounds suspiciously like a French porn pseudonym, but there is really no graphic sex and the only nudity is courtesy of Sydne Rome (a truly terrible actress who really had no other good reason to appear on the silver screen). Still, the casual way the movie regards an adult male going to bed with a fifteen-year-old girl is a little shocking by today's (non-French) standards. (Perhaps it's not too surprising that Roman Polanski ended up in France in the late 70's after fleeing the US on statutory rape charges). But really I found this movie a lot more laughably preposterous then sleazy or scandalous. And Jody is apparently not too embarrassed by it today--it's even mentioned briefly in her "A and E Biography"!

15-year-old schoolgirl in Paris (Jodie Foster), living with her supermodel sister following the death of their mother, is eager to "get laid" and sets her sights on the trench coat-wearing detective who's been hired by a Jewish truck driver to locate the busty sister, whom he's smitten with. One of two foreign films from 1977 which Jodie Foster co-starred in (the other being "Casotto", filmed in Italy), a decidedly sloppy enterprise which blatantly trades on the young star's budding insouciance and wise-beyond-her-years sexuality to propel its minuscule plot. There are some brief flashes of skin (not Foster's) and endless chatter about love and sex, but no actual characters. As Max, hairy-chested Jean Yanne (who reportedly directed under a pseudonym) has a hangdog sort of charm, but his working-class personality isn't nurtured and his attraction to the teenager is never resolved. The soundtrack features the blurry ballad "When I Looked at Your Face", vocalist Foster's first foray into pop music. * from ****

Eng Lng; French production, with Ptrgs subtitles) DVD Ultra Rare! Here's the skeleton in Jodie Foster's closet! She plays a teen virgin desperate to "pop her cherry" (her words, not mine) in French-made sex force; Never released in America! with Sydne Rome; the director is credited as "Eric Le Hung" (this is an obvious pseudonym; the actual director is presumed to be either co-star Jean Yanne or Claude Chabrol, a personal friend of Yanne.

I enjoyed this movie that I got quite by accident, I was so thrilled when it got started that is was not a loser. Well worth watching if you can find a copy, rent or whatever but this screams "enjoy Foster" at a peak of beauty not seen very often.