The Immature Grain

We're definitely on the fringe of 'classic' country here. A screenplay by those two masters Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost adapting in turn a novel by Colette, direction by Claude Autant-Lara and in the lead role the legendary Edwige Feuillere, a combination just made to upset Francois Truffaut and needle him into throwing his toys out of his pram. Tough, Francois; too bad you didn't take a closer look at how the big boys do it before inflicting your juvenilia on us. But enough of poseurs let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Watching today it seems incredible that at the time (1954) this caused something of a scandal dealing as it does with love, to say nothing of sex, between a callow teenager and the effortlessly elegant, chic, sophisticated and dare I say it, beautiful and luminescent Feuillere. Questions do occur, mostly why, when she is all these things, is Feuillere actually available for teenage initiation, why isn't she fending off at least a dozen admirers, and why does she pick on someone as unprepossessing, gauche and scrawny as Philippe (Pierre-Michel Beck) and, if it comes to that, how come someone as nerdish as Beck has a delectable girlfriend of more or less his own age in the shape of Vinca (Nicole Berger). Ultimately it doesn't matter because the combination of great writing, direction and acting from 'the lady in white' make this a movie to treasure.