ERSTE VERSUCHUNGEN (THE C - MO [DVD] [1977]

Good film 👍

i Did-Not Like it!

This 1976 French film is by Hugues Burin des Roziers, who sadly died at 42 in 1985, leaving this 73-minute feature, which he wrote as well as directed. It is a touching story of adolescence, centring on a trip to Herne Bay made by a group of French teenagers. The main character, Julien, is 13, seems to fall for an English girl called Janet, getting a lot of admiration from his peers for doing so, only to have her abandon him for an older boy called Jean-Pierre, whom Julien then develops a much bigger crush on. He ends up rather humiliated over his feelings which others are quicker to cotton onto than himself. The last part of the film then shows him back in France at his family chateau, revealing after the fact his very posh background, perhaps because the director didn't want it too loom too large in itself. Many of the scenes are very funny, particularly in the earlier part of the film. Herne Bay seems to have a lot of dancing for the elderly and pageant-type of events which are mocked by some of the French boys, giving rise to quite a droll tone. The acting and script are excellent, and it may well be the first film to show what it is like to discover gay feelings at that age. It actually came out in the same year as another French film, Gerard Blain's Un Enfant dans la foule, which relates to this theme although from a very different stylistic perspective, and set in quite different circumstances. Roziers' film perhaps isn't a masterpiece like Blain's but it is well worth watching and under the summer frolics there is a certain thought and subtle empathy that make it a film that deserves to be seen. This German release is a major step in enabling this; it has German subtitles and the dialogues are mixed English and French, but for those interested, I think not knowing French would not hinder one's enjoyment too much - most of the amusing bits, certainly, are in English.