This film was my cult film when I was a teenager (I must have seen it 10 times). Now I'm older (!) and I saw it again recently. I was slightly disappointed because it was not as good as in my souvenirs but still, I would recommend it and say it's a great film. If you want to see another side of France than what you usually get to see, this film is interesting. I just read Carson Mc Culler's "The Member of the Wedding" and was surprised to see how many common points there were with "L'effrontée". Does anyone know if the film was inspired by it? Common points: - The main character is a teenage girl, she's bored and a bit lonely; it's the summer and she watches other people having fun. She hangs out with a little neighbor (in the film) or her cousin (in the book), both younger than her. - She has no mother. She is raised by her father and by a nanny/helper. - At one point, she watches older teenagers having fun in a dancing club and feels a bit jealous, though she won't admit it. - To feel "grown-up", she uses perfume. - At one point, she follows an older guy into a hotel and when she understands that he wants to sleep with her, she hits him on the head with a glass globe (in the film) or a glass pitcher (in the book), escapes,and then asks her dad: "If you hit someone on the head with something very heavy, made of glass, do you think it could kill him?" At some another point, she says "the world is very sudden" in the book and in French, in the film, she says "le monde est brusque" (same meaning; that was also the word used in the French translation of the novel). That's too much to be a coincidence, isn't it? - And finally, both characters feel that they are "the member to no club" and that they are different because they don't feel "connected" to anyone...

Charlotte Gainsbourg is the main reason to watch this very typical coming-of-age film. She manages to make her character feel human and seem interesting, which is no easy task when she is playing quite a standard insecure teen character. The film does not take the tiresome story of a person wanting to escape their world and change their life to any new level, and it includes some awkward scenes (such as young girl mooning) that add nothing to the story. The film is also weighed down by an overbearing soundtrack of loud and inappropriate songs, but it is by no means a poor film overall. It is decent viewing, and the beautiful child prodigy character played Clothilde Baudon adds some zest, although as already mentioned, the lead performance is the primary reason to see this film.

Even though this film was released in 1985, I've recently watched it, and it is extraordinarily delightful! This is one of the most splendid French films I have ever seen! Claude Miller captivates his audience with a remarkable cast featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean-Philipe 'Ecoffey, Julie Glenn, Simon de la Brosse, etc. This film is filled with a lot of coming of age angst from its main characters. It's comedic moments with the constant outbursts from Charlotte are incredibly cute but also endearing. I've never encountered quite a warm and personable film as L' Effrontee before.In addition, L' Ecffrontee also boasts a fun theme song reminiscent of ABBA, which I desperately want to download!

François Truffaut and Jacques Doillon who have often worked with children know well one thing: making a movie about childhood or adolescence is a quite difficult thing. Here, it is Claude Miller's turn to broach the delicate topic of adolescence. The less we can say is that he signed here a sensitive and bitter work that brings out enough strength and emotion to compare with the filmmakers' movies previously quoted.The first indisputable quality that we can put forward is the following one: Claude Miller's film is very far from the clichés generally attributed to teenagers. Charlotte isn't a nymphet, only a teenage girl who is not a happy person and who's searching for love and understanding. The director succeeds very well in making us share his heroine's profound discontentment and Charlotte Gainsbourg won a well-deserved Oscar for her remarkable performance.Apart from the relevant and convincing description of Charlotte, Miller painted a series of characters who are never on the edge of caricature. Lulu is perhaps a naive little girl and the director somewhat made her look ugly by giving her glasses but he does everything to hide her dumb air. Then, Charlotte's father is presented as a good man and faced with her daughter's insolence, he can contain his anger. One last example, Clara's manager is not obsessed with money. With Charlotte Gainsbourg, it would be unfair to neglect the rest of the cast. Either the actors are young or old, they all have a common point: they are all excellent. This only confirm one gift that Claude Miller had already shown in his first movie, the harrowing "la meilleure façon de marcher" (1976): an excellent direction of actors.Besides, like in "la meilleure façon de marcher" (1976), "l'effrontée" (1985) is a perfectly stable movie, both funny, touching and where Miller skilfully alternates moments of tension and calm and the rare moments of violence are only suggested like the scene when Charlotte hits Jean with his globe.Quite obviously, what mainly interested the director in this film is Charlotte's relationship with the most important character of the film: Clara Baumann. Their confrontations constitute the key-moments of the movie. Clara is a talented young pianist and Charlotte blindly idolizes her. She is ready to believe everything she says, even when Clara confides to her that she would like to become her impresario on tour. It is interesting to note down that when she talks about Clara, Claude Miller gently laughs at her naivety. More important, through their relationship, Miller compared their respective worlds. The music used (the song "Sarà, perché ti amo and Mozart) reveal the incompatibility of these worlds and the beginning of the sketched friendship (but is it really friendship?) is eventually bound to fail. To tell this failure, Miller proceeds by little touches: the manager's telephone that doesn't answer, Lulu who creates a scandal during the show. This failure clearly shows Charlotte's disillusion but it doesn't stop the movie to end on a positive tone: when we see the heroine take care of Lulu, she seems to have understood that her place is among her family.The movie also contains another strong point: the relationship between Jean and Charlotte where Miller favors the progressive rise of tension. For this, he uses the same method as Charlotte's failure with Clara: he proceeds by little touches: the movie they watch at the cinema is "the Exorcist" (1973) and the tension gradually grows and explodes when they are in Jean's hotel room.I must admit that I don't know enough Claude Miller's work. I only saw "la meilleure façon de marcher" (1976), "la petite voleuse" (1988) and this one "l'effrontée" (1985) but these three films were sufficient to make me a very good impression of this filmmaker and I am long to discover his other opus.