After failing their baccalauréat (high school graduation exam), Alain and Jean-Pierre are sent by their parents to spend the summer living with British families. It was considered scandalous upon its release and banned in some towns in France for its open evocation of sexuality.Ī Nous les Petites Anglaises (Let’s Get Those English Girls) Michel Lang, 1976Ī hilarious comedy set in 1959. Set in the early 1920s, the film is based on a novel by Colette. Phil meets an older woman (Edwige Feuillère) who takes it upon herself to initiate him sexually, with devastating consequences for the young couple. Le Blé en Herbe (The Game of Love) Claude Autant-Lara, 1954Ĭhildhood friends Phil (Pierre-Michel Beck), 16, and Vinca (Nicole Berger), 15, fall in love one summer, but don’t know how to deal with their new feelings and desires. These coming-of-age films portray succeeding generations of French teenagers. In France, the complex teenage years are sometimes called l’âge bête, the stupid age.
