Les collégiennes

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.