The re-issue of "UN GOSSE DE LA BUTTE" put back the spotlight on Maurice Delbez's career ;unfortunately ,apart from the above-mentioned work ,there's not a lot of things to discover:his three comedies (but "A PIED A CHEVAL ET EN VOITURE" which depicted the coming of automobile mass production in the late fifties )were abysmal ;then we're left with "L'Année Du Bac" .
Against all odds ,it's better than I was expecting ;it's obsolete,it's simplistic,but it is bizarre and can be considered a curio.
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So much for the prologue :yeah yeah girl Sheila ,cute with her famous bunches ,performs "Cette Année-Là " (not written by her regular songwriter) :this is a rather lovely ballad ,not unworthy of teenage angst one can find in Phil Spector's productions :it's not in the same league ,by a long shot ,but it's got a fine brief sixties guitar solo ;this slow is heard again in the movie and hummed by the young actresses ;I cannot help but think that if Sheila is featured ,it's because her producer/songwriter wrote the score and thus found a good way to promote her record.
The film subject is the generations gap ;it takes place in a rather bourgeois milieu : A general (Paul Amiot) owns a castle,Monsieur Terrenoire (Jean Desailly) dwells in a comfortable house with TV set ,a thing many people could not afford in the early sixties ;by contrast ,the teacher,Monsieur Cachou ,lives in a rather modest apartment.The general has his son and daughter under his command :he instills moral values and the sense of honor into his children : the girl (Elisabeth Wiener) will not be allowed to attend the Surprise-Partie (Surpat)(=party ) ;the unfortunate boy will .On the other hand , there's a nice camaraderie between Monsieur Terrenoire and his son Mic:two different ways of education ,the screenwriters won't really take sides .
A bizarre movie indeed ;the first part is insignificant : hints at homework (maths and essays ) , blue jokes, futile quarrels between youngsters ....Then the long "Sur-pat " which at first appears as the pièce de resistance ;fortunately ,it is not ,for the viewer quickly grows weary of this muzak.The celebration turns sour as gossips and slander turn up .
The movie which was a harmless bland comedy becomes a drastic tragedy ;the tone of the conversations has changed and many things which would have been better left unsaid make the youngsters think that "if they want their daddy to be hero,a moral champion,they are bound to be disillusioned before long ".
This last part looks like those old scout novels ,with its morbid atmosphere,its "gallows" ,its priest dressed in black , which sharply contrasts with what the viewer has seen in the first half;this gap throws the film off balance but makes it an UFO on the French sixties scene ....
