Néa

Absurdly and opportunistically released here as A Young Emmanuelle, Nelly Kaplan's film in fact hovers in tone in the same range as Rohmer's moral fables, but its plot reveals the sexual-political drive that runs through all her work. The spoilt child of a rich Geneva family writes an erotic novel (for her own fantasy life). Oppressed by her bigoted father and by a hypocritical family life, she becomes wilfully determined - publishing the novel anonymously, encouraging her (gay) mother to leave home for her lover, and taking a lover herself to acquire the experience that she feels she lacks. The film's insistence on sexual liberation in itself makes it curious; but after a hesitant opening, the subject matter is matched by an enchanted tone, hanging between humour and cruelty, slim snatches of parody, heartache and eroticism. For once, a radical film that is generous, ingenious and alive.