Cette sacrée gamine (1956) - film review

Paul Latour, the owner of a cabaret, is suspected by the police of being a banknote forger.  He decides to leave Paris and asks Jean Clery, the cabaret’s star performer, to take care of his daughter, Brigitte.  Jean is convinced that Brigitte has been brought up in a high class institution and is ignorant of her father’s criminal activities.  Jean decides to bring Brigitte back to his apartment but his fiancée, Lilli, does not agree and soon becomes jealous of her.  Jean soon learns that Brigitte is not the well-educated girl he had supposed but is in fact a terrible trouble maker...
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium)

1956 was the year that saw Brigitte Bardot elevated from stardom to the status of international sex goddess, through her appearance in two hugely successful films - Cette sacrée gamine, a popular sex comedy very much in the American mould, and Et Dieu créa la femme, a daring celebration of the liberated modern woman directed by Bardot’s then husband Roger Vadim.  Of these two films, only Vadim’s film stands up to critical scrutiny, although both were crucial in creating the Bardot brand and winning the actress her international renown.

Cette sacrée gamine was the first of four films that Bardot made with the director Michel Boisrond, the others being Une Parisienne (1957), Voulez-vous danser avec moi ? (1959) and Les Amours célèbres (1961).  All of these films are lightweight comedies which are recommended only for cultural masochists and/or diehard Bardot fans.  Scripted by Vadim, Cette sacrée gamine is a chore to sit through, lacking both a decent narrative and any really good gags.  Its one redeeming feature is an impressively staged ballet dream sequence, in which Bardot appears at her most alluringly seductive. 

The film is also noted for being the first occasion that Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault appeared together on screen.  Previously, they had formed a hugely successful cabaret act and would appear together in several films, notably Assassins et voleurs (1957) and La Gueule de l'autre (1979).  Bardot’s co-star in this film Jean Bretonnière disappeared virtually without trace at the end of the 1950s, although he resurfaced in a supporting role in Bertrand Tavernier’s Le Juge et l’assassin (1976).  Meanwhile, Bardot would continue appearing in tedious froth such as this (taking the occasional respite from mediocrity with the help of a few serious filmmakers) until she got bored, gave up acting altogether and found a more rewarding occupation - championing the rights of furry little animals.   Having sat through this infantile tosh, I can’t say I blame her.  This is the kind of film that makes you look kindly on squirrels.

© James Travers 2010

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