Product Description

Charlotte, a disillusioned teenager living in Savoie, realizes the joys and sorrows of adolescence after becoming enamored with a sophisticated young pianist visiting her town.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38400 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
This sweet, sad movie about the yearning of an adolescent girl brought acclaim to French starlet Charlotte Gainsbourg. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte (Gainsbourg) bickers with her family, has become an outcast at school, and generally feels that her life lacks all beauty and happiness. When she accidentally meets a beatific young piano prodigy named Clara, Charlotte hopes this girl will become her friend and take her away to a better world--but in order to worm her way into Clara's life, Charlotte lets a creepy sailor into hers. Director Claude Miller (Alias Betty, The Accompanist) formerly worked with François Truffaut, whose influence can be seen here--L'Effrontée has a light, relaxed tone that allows small, human details to emerge without apparent effort. Gainsbourg gives a winning performance, mostly by letting Charlotte be sullen, difficult, and innnocently self-deluding; she feels remarkably real. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

A Superb Coming of Age Film, French-Style
L'EFFRONTEE is a delight. Director Claude Miller created this little low budget film in 1985 and in it he introduced young Charlotte Gainsbourg who now enjoys a significant cinematic presence both in Europe and the USA. The story is a simple one but one with deep feeling and lingering impact.

Charlotte (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is thirteen, plain, discontent with her life in boring Savoie, France, a girl without boyfriends and whose only girlfriend is a younger sickly child Lulu (Julie Glenn). Charlotte lives with her guardian Antoine (Raoul Billerey) and housekeeper Leone (Bernadette Lafont) and faces a summer of boredom and resentment that she has such a 'wretched life'. As school is ending she discovers that a child prodigy pianist Clara Baumann (Clothilde Baudon) is in Savoie for a concert. Clara is everything Charlotte wants to be - pretty, gifted, popular, wealthy, living a fascinatingly magical life. Simultaneously Charlotte encounters a young sailor Jean (Jean-Phillipe Ecoffey) working in a metal factor, a lad in his 20s who is the first male to pay attention to her. They flirt and her infatuation with Jean parallels her 'falling in love' with Clara and all that Clara represents. With Jean's help, and the help of Clara's manager Sam - 'Fruit of the Loom' (Jean-Claude Brialy), Charlotte spends a day with Clara and fantasizes escaping Savoie and joining the young pianist on her tour of France. How all this plays out is the beauty of this exquisite film. Charlotte discovers that the promises of adulthood and greener pastures are not everything she had hoped.

Gainsbourg gives a stunning portrayal of this child on the verge of puberty, never overacting or playing for effect: the performance is understated and wholly credible. The musical score is superb with performances of the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto and the Mendelssohn Concerto adding zest. It took 19 years, but finally this delectable movie is available on DVD. Highly recommended. In French with excellent English subtitles.

L'Effrontee
L'EFFRONTEE introduces a young Charlotte Gainsbourg. You can also see her many talents in The Cement Garden. Overall this is a good movie with one brief topless scene of Charlotte where she's trying to figure out which top to wear.