Collégiennes, Les (1957)

Director:

André Hunebelle

Writers:

Jean Lambertie (writer)
Jacques Lancien (writer)

Release Date:

3 May 1957 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Sexy... Secretive... Seductive...

Plot:

A beautiful and sophisticated teenager is placed in a regimented French girls' boarding school after...

Cast

Agnès Alma
Marthe Alycia	...	L'infirmière
Elga Andersen	...	Hélène (as Elga Hymen)
Viviane Arlan
Marie-Hélène Arnaud	...	Catherine Royer
Paulette Arnoux
Madeleine Barbulée	...	La principale
René Bergeron	...	Le garagiste
Simone Berthier
Estella Blain	...	Marthe
Florence Brière	...	Le professeur de mathématique (as F. Brière)
Christine Carère	...	Monique
Raymond Carl	...	Le père Leprompt
Olivia Chevalier	...	Une petite collégienne
Dany Cintra
Monique Clarence		(as Monique Clarens)
Louisa Colpeyn		(as Louisa Colpeyn)
Jacqueline Corot	...	Sophie
Sophie Daumier	...	Nicole (as Betty Daumier)
Chantal Debey
Catherine Delalande	...	Une grande
Jeanne-Marie Demard	...	Une grande (as J.M. Demard)
Sylvie Dorléac	...	Adélaïde
Luce Fabiole	...	Mme Letellier
Fernand Fabre	...	Le docteur
Anna Gaylor	...	Geneviève
Josette Grenier
Paul Guers	...	Gilles
Henri Guisol	...	Christian Brenner
Marcelle Hainia
Yvonne Jacquemot	...	Une grande
Jean-Pierre Jaubert
Rolande Kalis		(as Rolande Ségur)
Agnès Laurent	...	Anne-Marie
Josyane Machat	...	Une grande (as Josiane Machat)
Jacqueline Marbaux
Sylvie Marey
Gaby Morlay	...	Mme Ancelin
Picolette	...	Bernadette
Made Siamé	...	La surveillante des petites
Solange Sicard	...	La mère de Marthe
Anita Treyens	...	Betty
Véronique Verlhac	...	Solange
André Wasley	...	Le père de Marthe

Also Known As:

The Twilight Girls

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Movie Connections:

Edited into Dictionary of Sex (1964)

haunting faces, creeping eroticism

Despite its frank (for the time) look at schoolgirl lust, this is ultimately a rather tepid melodrama in the traditional French coming-of-age genre. Due to the staid setting and pedestrian direction, it affords none of the retro-chic cachet of other foreign films imported by Radley Metzger's Audubon Films at the time. In fact, Metzger ingeniously shot and inserted some racier nude and lesbian scenes for the delayed import version (included on both the VHS and DVD releases), featuring a young, innocent-looking Georgina Spelvin! However, the requisite shower scene featuring Agnes Laurent is obviously from the original. There is also a gratifying hint of middle-aged adults being much more in tune with the girls' problems and desires than one would expect, and an equally fascinating subtext of adults (both male and female) lusting after the not-always-so-innocent girls.

The film serves best as a time capsule of the era just on the brink of the sexual revolution, and especially as a gallery of fascinating faces which decorated other Eurocult items -- Laurent, Estella Blain (who steals the show here with her exotic look) and, as a little girl, Catherine Deneuve, much spunkier than in any of her adult roles. Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog also believes he sees a teenage Bardot in one scene, but this is not readily apparent in the VHS version. Metzger would go on to create his own Euro-style schoolgirl epic, Therese and Isabelle.