This film ranked #70 in Time Out's list of the 100 greatest French films. Click here to see the full list.
Director: Jacques Rozier
In September, as their classmates prepare for the school ‘rentrée’, three teenage girls set off for a sea village on the Vendée coast, determined to make the most of their remaining weeks of freedom. There they meet a local man, Gilbert (Bernard Menez in his first role), whom they tease and tantalize mercilessly.
With its trio of teenage sirens – who spend most of the film sauntering about the coastal town in their underwear, listening to psychedelic pop or engaged in trivial banter – the film evokes Rohmer’s moral tales, although it is appreciably less austere. Like its three fall-breakers, Rozier’s camera roams the countryside without point or purpose, capturing brisk scenes and jaunty dialogue in a whirl of mischief and whimsy. Produced by channel FR3 and filmed in 1969 as a TV movie, 'Du Côté d’Orouët' is a small masterpiece of levity and improvisation, a sweet, sensual gem of a film.