A Very Curious Girl
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Pour vous c'est gratuit, vous êtes le seul qui est gentil avec moi ici."--Marie "By way of ultimate revenge, Marie ends up broadcasting in full mass the confidences and slander that she has collected on the pillow thanks to a tape recorder: the hypocrisy and the meanness of the respectable parishioners, and even those of the parish priest, finally appear in broad daylight. Outraged, the villagers rush to Marie's cabin, but arrive too late: she set it on fire before fleeing. They can only blindly destroy her junk, paid for by their money. Without luggage and barefoot, Marie takes the road to freedom against the backdrop of the spring countryside."--end of the film, spoiler alert |
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A Very Curious Girl (La Fiancée du pirate) is a 1969 French comedy-drama film directed, edited and co-written by Nelly Kaplan. Other English titles are "Dirty Mary" and "Pirate's Fiancée".
An exploited young woman (Marie) begins charging money for her sexual favors (while letting nice people for free) and disrupts the smug society in a small French village. The film is is a criticism of patriarchy, hypocrisy, religion and capitalism.
It was produced by Moshé Mizrahi, written by Claude Makovski, Jacques Serguine and Michel Fabre, it stars Bernadette Lafont and has music by Georges Moustaki.
It is an example of women's cinema.
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Plot
Marie is a young woman who lives in sheer poverty in the fictional village and commune of Tellier (an allusion to La Maison Tellier) with her mother, a woman of obscure origins suspected to be a Romanichel sorcerer, and her pet buck. Marie and her mother are despised by the locals although Marie is also a sexual object for them, including her lesbian boss Irène. One day, when her mother dies after a hit-and-run accident and the locals do not even care to bury her, Marie decides that things have to change and starts to charge people who have sex with her. Eventually, she plans to take revenge on those people who take advantage of her.
Cast
- Bernadette Lafont as Marie
- Georges Géret as Gaston Duvalier, the village guard
- Michel Constantin as André, the projectionist
- Julien Guiomar as the Duke
- Jean Parédès as Monsieur Paul, the herbalist
- Francis Lax as Émile, the commune council member
- Claire Maurier as Irène, Marie's boss
- Marcel Pérès as Grandpa
- Pascal Mazzotti : Abbé Dard
- Jacques Masson : Hippolyte Duvalier, Gaston's son
- Henry Czarniak : Julien, Irène's farmhand
- Jacques Marin : Félix Lechat, the café owner
- Micha Bayard : Mélanie « La Goulette » Lechat, Félix's wife
- Fernand Berset : Jeanjean, the lingerie salesman
- Renée Duncan : Fifine (Delphine), Émile's wife
- Gilberte Géniat : Rose, the Duke's wife
- Claire Olivier : Marie's mother
- Louis Malle : Jésus, the Duke's Spanish farmhand
- Claude Makovski : Victor, the shop owner
Score
Georges Moustaki's soundtrack was released in the same year as the film.
- Histoire du Cirque (1:22)
- Duo (2:21)
- La Mort (2:08)
- Pierre et Nicole (2:44)
- Thème de Franca (1:37)
- A Lisbonne (fado) (1:37)
- Retour à L'hôtel (2:18)
- Le Scandale / Suite (11:40)
- Mona (1:31)
- Anne et Claude au Musée (2:27)
- Le Désespoir de Muriel (3:52)
- La Déclaration d'Amour (2:25)
- La Rupture (3.46)
- Epilogue (2:25)
- Une Petite Ile (1:30)
- Anne et Claude (2:05)
- Moi, Je Me Balance (2:46) by Barbara
- Marche de Marie (2:35)
Critical reception
The New York Times listed "A curious girl" as one of Bernadette Lafont's most notable films. The Guardian mentions "A curious girl" in her obituary and states Lafont's performance had been "brilliant".
