A Very Curious Girl


A Very Curious Girl is a 1969 French comedy-drama film directed, edited and co-written by Nelly Kaplan.

Plot

Marie is a young woman who lives in absolute poverty in the fictional village and commune of Tellier with her mother, a woman of obscure origins suspected to be a Romany sorcerer, and her pet billy-goat. Marie and her mother are despised by the locals, although Marie is also a sexual object for them, including her lesbian boss Irène.
When her mother is killed by a hit-and-run driver, Marie refuses to allow the priest to giver her a Christian burial, citing the mistreatment to which the church and people of Tellier had subjected them both. Instead, she convinces several of the townspeople to bury her mother outside the shack where they lived on Irène's farm. Then she decides to take revenge on those people who have taken advantage of her.
She begins by sleeping with many of the local men in exchange for money, becoming relatively wealthy while garnering social and political influence. At the same time, she grows closer to André, a travelling projectionist. Throughout the film, Marie uses her influence to unmask the hypocrisy and selfishness of the people of Tellier, in particular its patriarchal men.

Cast

's soundtrack was released in the same year as the film.
  1. Histoire du Cirque
  2. Duo
  3. La Mort
  4. Pierre et Nicole
  5. Thème de Franca
  6. A Lisbonne
  7. Retour à L'hôtel
  8. Le Scandale / Suite
  9. Mona
  10. Anne et Claude au Musée
  11. Le Désespoir de Muriel
  12. La Déclaration d'Amour
  13. La Rupture
  14. Epilogue
  15. Une Petite Ile
  16. Anne et Claude
  17. Moi, Je Me Balance
  18. Marche de Marie

    Critical reception

The New York Times listed A Very Curious Girl as one of Bernadette Lafont's most notable films. The website filmfanatic.org put this film into the category "Foreign Gem". The Guardian mentions "A curious girl" in her obituary and states Lafont's performance had been "brilliant".