Summary
Four attractive young women who work together in a shop try to escape the monotony of
their uneventful lives by partying and chasing after men. Ginette has ambitions
of starting a career as a singer, Rita is engaged to her boss, Jane allows herself to
be picked up by married men, whilst Jacqueline is stalked by a mysterious motorcyclist.
None of the women seems capable of finding fulfilment in their lives, except, perhaps,
Jacqueline...
Review
Although it is now widely regarded as one of the most important and representative films
of the French New Wave, Les Bonnes femmes faced a barrage of negative criticism
when it was first released in 1960. Today, the film might be classified as a social
drama, and it is perhaps Claude Chabrol’s most realistic film. At the time, however,
the far from romantic depiction of young women coping with their humdrum lives resulted
in a ferocious public backlash, which had a great impact on Chabrol’s subsequent career.
In the following years, Chabrol stuck to far safer subjects, making him much less daring
as a director than his New Wave contemporaries, such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc
Godard.
Today, it is hard to appreciate the controversy that Les Bonnes femmes created
on its initial release. Some film critics describe it as a masterpiece, a
hugely perceptive portrait of young women facing a barren future of marital ennui and
unfulfilled work lives. Perhaps more daring than the content is the way in which
the film is shot and edited, much closer to our collective notion of French New Wave films
and a total contrast to what we see in Chabrol’s future films.
Perhaps the film’s main strength is the quality of the performances from its four lead
actresses, especially the eternally coquettish Bernadette Lafont, a favourite of the New
Wave directors. Chabrol’s direction is also noteworthy, showing a confidence and
creativity which is lacking in his earlier films, such as Les Cousins. The
film’s Hitchcockian ending also provides a strong hint as to the direction Chabrol’s film-making
career would take, presaging the atmospheric psychological thrillers for which the director
is now better known.
© James Travers 2001
For more on Claude Chabrol see:
The life of Claude Chabrol
Le Beau Serge
Les Cousins
Le Boucher
Que la bête meure
La Cérémonie
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