Film Review
Director Michel Lang made a promising feature debut with this bittersweet
portrayal of adolescence, set in Ramsgate (that well-known Mecca for
French students) during the rock and roll years.
Characteristically for this director, the cast consists mainly of
inexperienced and non-professional actors and is shot almost entirely
on location. This gives the film a near-documentary naturalism
and immediacy which is quite rare for a French film of this
period.
The film is interesting for its amusingly Gallic portrayal of the
English, who are naturally portrayed as tea-drinking barbarians who
cannot take their liquor and exist on a diet of blancmange and
jelly. The funniest moments are in the scenes where the two
central characters, Jean-Pierre and Alain, interact with their host
families. Inevitably, there is at least one member of each
household who finds their French lodger irresistible and will do
anything to seduce him. Not surprising then that both lads end up
looking like beleaguered prisoners of war.
The principals - Rémi Laurent, Stéphane Hillel and
Véronique Delbourg - all make their film debut here and it is
their sympathetic and believable performances which made the
film a comparative box office hit. Music from the period is
supplemented by work from Mort Shuman, a composer who had work for
Elvis Presley, giving the film an authentic late fifties feel, which
doubtless added to its nostalgia value. Although Michel Lang made
several films in a similar vein, notably
L'Hôtel de la plage
(1978), few of these come even close to matching the beguiling charm
and sincerity of
À nous les
petites Anglaises!, which is now a sadly overlooked little gem.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
France, 1959. Jean-Pierre and Alain's reward for failing their final
year exams is to have their trip to St Tropez cancelled. Instead, their
parents bundle them off to Ramsgate in England, in the hope that this will
allow them to improve their English. You'd have thought that the prospect
of being stuck for the entire summer in a wet, foggy backwater when no one
can speak a civilised language like French would have dimmed their enthusiasm.
But no, Jean-Pierre and Alain are looking forward to their holiday in Shakespeare
Land - if only to try out their powers of seduction on the local girls.
Well, everyone knows that English girls are turned on by a French accent...
The lads' illusions are soon shattered when it becomes apparent that, far
from being passionate lovers, English girls do not even know how to kiss
properly! Have they no idea what tongues are for? Their Gallic
ardour well and truly dampened, Jean-Pierre and Alain amuse themselves with
their fellow students. It isn't long before they are experiencing the
delights and upsets of teen love in a cold Kentish climate...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.