In 1925, a young country girl, knowing that she had less than a year to live, goes to the big city to learn the piano from a famous teacher. That's only an excuse to have fun, live fast, drink hard, smoke a lot, dance all night: to be a perfect flapper. After
falling in love with a Black jazz musician, she realise that this kind of life was not was she was looking for. This is a slow beautiful arty film, in a very European mood.Francis Leclerc, in his first film, shows us that he a a very good technique, creativity, imagination, and credibility. All the young actors are very good, but perhaps the star of the film, Fanny Malette, is a little bit cold... This is a very different kind of movie for a Quebec production. It shows us that North-American modernity was also present in Quebec big cities in the 1920's. Most of the times, Quebec film's about periods before 1940 shows us only the rural conservative side of our society. As an author, in 1999, I had a book, Perles et Chapelet, which presents a similarity with this film : the flappers. A filmaker have read my book (I won't tell her name!) and she said to me it had the potential for a very good film, but she said that Quebec's producers have no money to put in a setting of the past. When I saw UNE JEUNE FILLE À LA FENÊTRE, it stucks me : there are not many setting in the streets. Francis Leclerc did it with a low budget, and that's why he concentrates on the actors. I think a American or a French film about the subjects (the flappers) or that era (the 1920's) will have shown us more outside settings.
A very good and senstive piece of work for Mr. Leclerc. Let's hope many other films from him !
