"A Gorgeous Girl Like Me"*** (out of **** )
Beautiful women. There is something about beautiful women. Men, mostly lonely or sexually inexperienced men, will do anything to make beautiful women smile. They will do anything just to talk to beautiful women. Men only want to spend time with women. They will shower them with gifts, give them money and delude themselves into thinking their actions will "buy" a woman's affections. Most people (men and women) live under the fallacy if a person will just get to know them, they will see how special they are.
No, I'm not reading my diary smartalec. These were my thoughts watching the French comedy directed by Francois Truffaut, "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" (1972). It seems to be what Truffaut was going after.
By the time Truffaut directed this movie he was a well established figure in the French New Wave, having directed "400 Blows" (1959), "Jules & Jim" (1962) and "Shoot the Piano Player" (1960). After directing this movie Truffaut's follow-up would be "Day For Night" (1973), perhaps one of his most popular films. It was very well received earning Academy Award nominations, even winning one for the best foreign language film. The late movie critic Gene Siskel called it the best movie of the year. It may be because of this "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" (AKA "Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me") gets lost in the shuffle of Truffaut's films and is rarely discussed. It doesn't help that the movie is not available on DVD in the U.S. and back in the days of VHS was out of circulation.
Stanislas Previne (Andre Dussollier) is a sociologist who visits a prison in order to interview Camille Bliss (Bernadette Lafont), a convicted murderer, for a thesis he is writing on criminal women. As soon as Camille sees Stanislas she plays him for a fool. Stanislas may be meeting her for an interview but he may have other motives. One of the prison guards tells him there are far more interesting women in the prison he can interview but Stanislas insist on Camille. Why? It is because she is an exceptionally beautiful woman? Or is her criminal profile truly fascinating?
During their several meetings Camille compliments Stanislas on his appearance, his constantly asks for favors, wanting him to buy her gifts and she even makes wardrobe suggestions to Stanislas, commenting on his tie. Stanislas may not be aware but the viewer can sense she is buttering him up. In the moment however all Stanislas knows is a beautiful woman is paying attention to him and he likes it.
Truffaut doesn't tell Camille's background story in a linear narrative. Instead it plays like vignettes as Camille tells us about her relationship with men and the real story on how certain men died that she has been accused of killing. Naturally her version of events is a little different from the truth. This is also an interesting commentary adding to the theme of delusion. Not only do we delude ourselves into thinking members of the opposite sex find us attractive, we also delude ourselves into thinking we are good people and create our own history of events, justifying our behavior.
In Camille's for eyes for example, is it her fault her father died after she moved a ladder which caused him to fall to his death? Shouldn't he have known the ladder was missing? And its not like she did it on purpose or anything. She needed the ladder to do chores.
Then there is the issue of her sexual relationship with men, which seems to be an endless list but as she tells the story, the men were using her. At one point she even refers to herself as an "almost virgin". Whatever that means. And Stanislas falls for it all believing she is "pure" an innocent girl that has been taken advantage of.
This seems to reflect an old belief that all men want to "save" the bad girl. The bad girl is fun. She has an outgoing personality. She can make men feel attractive and good about themselves. She's not above flirting with strangers and telling a mildly dirty joke, allowing the hint of sex to fill the air. At the same time every man believes the "bad girl" is misunderstood and just needs a good man to take care of her and love her. That will change her.
It is what seems to be happening to Stanislas. He always defends Camille's behavior to his secretary, Helene (Anne Kreis), who has a crush on Stanislas, and can see right through Camille and sees the effect she has on Stanislas. Again, its the old story of a person ignoring the one who loves them for someone more exciting. Or a case of, the person we like, never likes us back.
What makes "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" so entertaining is the performance given by Bernadette Lafont. Truffaut is able to do to the audience what Camille does to Stanislas, make us fall in love with her. Much is made of Camille's beauty and Lafont is a beautiful woman. Truffaut creates a lot of scenes with Camille wearing very little clothing which stirs up a sexual excitement among the male viewers. This is to say nothing of Lafont's charisma and natural screen presence and the fact she has good comic timing. We believe she is this character.
Lafont, who died in 2013, had a long career in French cinema, working often with Claude Chabrol, appearing in his first feature film, "Le Beau Serge" (1959), considered by many film historians as the first film in the French New Wave movement. But it is her performance in "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" that was a star making turn.
While I wouldn't consider this a satire of film noir, Truffaut does have some fun creating a comedic femme fatale character in Camille. Like all femme fatales, Camille is a dangerous woman who will bring men to their downfall. She knows how to play against their weakness. Truffaut, who started his career as a movie critic, may have been thinking of Barbara Stanwyck or Marlene Dietrich when he wrote this character. In the end the message in "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" is the same, beautiful women make men do stupid things.
Truffaut's movie does comment somewhat on human behavior and is funny to watch, it only hits the surface and doesn't really examine these characters. It probably wasn't Truffaut's intention to do that anyway but his minor ambition prevents the movie from being something greater. Comedy can hit on basic human truths but "A Gorgeous Girl Like Me" almost seems more motivated to go for silliness and play around with movie genres, particularly noir and mysteries.
On the other hand it achieves what it set out to do and for that you must give Truffaut credit. By not setting the bar high that most likely is why the movie is not well remembered. But, we must accept the movie on its own terms and in that context the movie is rewarding.
If after watching this you want to see more of Truffaut's comic side, find "The Man Who Loved Women" (1977).
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