La récréation

Jean Seberg, after bombing in Otto Preminger's St. Joan, had her greatest success playing an American in Paris in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. In the same year (after, not before, Breathless) she was directed by her husband, Francois Moreuil, in this film (La Recreation, aka Love Play, aka Playtime). Again she plays an American abroad, but this time an innocent one (a boarding school student), who is attracted to a next-door sculpture. He and his mistress are painted as decadent, and he has committed a hit-and-run. The affair ends in crashing disillusionment for the Seberg character. My copy was very streaky, as most probably are. I am borrowing some here from "Played Out, the Jean Seberg Story" by David Richards (1981, out of print). The film is very dated - I would recommended it only to Jean Seberg fans.