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Wednesday, June 12, 2019

IN THE FRENCH STYLE (1963)

Jean Seberg gets a sentimental education in this modest Robert Parrish film, adapted by Irwin Shaw from a pair of his own stories. Working a bit too hard to be frank & adult (circa 1963), the first story finds 19-yr-old American Seberg painting in Paris on her parents’ dime; meeting a charmingly arrogant, devilish beau mec (Philippe Forquet); and hoping to lose her virginity on her own terms. Parrish gets a nice visual flow on Paris streets & interiors, with Nouveau Vague tech work & talent (cinematographer/composer) to help it look & sound right. It’s the attitudes that feel out of touch, prurient in a ‘40s manner as if Shaw were working on a gender-swapped memoir. These two horny kids aren’t innocent, they’re square. Four years on, Jean’s painting is stuck in a rut, but her social life is very LA DOLCE VITA (LA DOUCEUR DE VIVRE?). Dad comes from the States for a visit, worried she’s drifting. And while love with hunky foreign correspondent Stanley Baker has it’s charms, how often is he actually in town? The paired tales have their clunky aspects, but Parrish & Shaw aren’t phoning it in, and the earnest quality can pay off. As in a final scene for Baker & Seberg on love & regret. With a neatly handled resolution in the final shot. And while there are limits to Shaw & Parrish's craft, the film has its charms.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Glam’d up in the second story with teased ‘60s hair & sewn into a sparkly black dress, Seberg shows just the look Alfred Hitchcock must have been trying for (but missed) with ‘Tippi’ Hedren in THE BIRDS and MARNIE.

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