A Very Curious Girl Explained

A Very Curious Girl (fr|La Fiancée du pirate) is a 1969 French comedy-drama film directed, edited and co-written by Nelly Kaplan.^{[1] [2] [3]} Other English titles are Dirty Mary and Pirate's Fiancée.^{[4] [5]}

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.

When her mother dies after a hit-and-run accident, Marie refuses to allow the local priest to giver her a Christian burial, citing the mistreatment to which the church and people of Tellier had subjected them both. Instead, she convinces several of the townspeople to bury her mother outside the small shack they share on Irène's farm and decides to take revenge on those people who take advantage of her.

She begins sleeping with many of the townsfolk in exchange for money, becoming relatively wealthy (compared to her previous meagre living situation) while garnering social and political influence. At the same time, she grows closer to André, a travelling projectionist. Throughout the film, Marie uses her influence to unmask the hypocrisy and selfishness of the people of Tellier, in particular its patriarchal male characters.^[6]

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.^[4]

1. Histoire du Cirque (1:22)
2. Duo (2:21)
3. La Mort (2:08)
4. Pierre et Nicole (2:44)
5. Thème de Franca (1:37)
6. A Lisbonne (fado) (1:37)
7. Retour à L'hôtel (2:18)
8. Le Scandale / Suite (11:40)
9. Mona (1:31)
10. Anne et Claude au Musée (2:27)
11. Le Désespoir de Muriel (3:52)
12. La Déclaration d'Amour (2:25)
13. La Rupture (3.46)
14. Epilogue (2:25)
15. Une Petite Ile (1:30)
16. Anne et Claude (2:05)
17. Moi, Je Me Balance (2:46)
18. Marche de Marie (2:35)

Critical reception

The New York Times listed A Very Curious Girl as one of Bernadette Lafont's most notable films.^[7] The website filmfanatic.org put this film into the category "Foreign Gem".^[8] The Guardian mentions "A curious girl" in her obituary and states Lafont's performance had been "brilliant".^[9]

Notes and References

1. Web site: La fiancée du pirate. virtual-history.com. 2013-07-26.
2. Web site: A very curious girl. unifrance.org. 2013-07-26.
3. Web site: Nelly Kaplan's English Biography. oswego.edu. 2013-07-27.
4. Web site: Fiancée Du Pirate, La (1969). soundtrackcollector.com. 2013-07-26.
5. Web site: Pirate's Fiancée. screenrush.co.uk. 2013-07-26.
6. Kaplan, Nelly (director) . 3 December 1969 . La Fiancée du pirate . A Very Curious Girl . Motion picture . French . France.
7. Web site: Bernadette Lafont:Unwinding the Reels. Knorr, Katherine. The New York Times. 1997-11-15. 2013-07-26.
8. Web site: Very Curious Girl, A (1969). filmfanatic.org. 2013-07-26.
9. Web site: Bernadette Lafont obituary. Bergan, Ronald. The Guardian. 2013-07-26. 2013-07-27.