L’Effrontée

Dir. Claude Miller (1985).
Miller’s treatment of the delicate topic of the pangs of adolescence bears comparison with the films of his compatriots Francois Truffaut and Jacques Doillon on the same theme. Charlotte Gainsbourg gives a strong performance in the leading role of a discontented teenager in a provincial town who becomes obsessed with a pretty young concert pianist her own age. As always, Miller shows a fine hand in the direction of actors and the picture won two Cesar (French Oscars) awards. A good deal of it is clearly an uncredited variation on Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding.”

Tue., Feb. 16, 4 p.m., 2010