Cours privé (1986)
Directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre

Film Review

If there is a consistent theme running through Pierre Granier-Deferre's work as a director it is an affinity, if not relish, for the darker, more perverse side of human nature. His characters - male and female equally - are rarely predictable, and often unfathomable in the way they treat themselves and other people.  Witness the cruelty that Jean Gabin and Simone Signoret subject each other to in Le Chat (1971), and the sadistic torment Lino Ventura suffers at the hands of his ex-wife in La Cage (1975). Cours privé is one of Granier-Deferre's darker studies in this shadowy hinterland of the human psyche, revolving around the theme of forbidden love between a young woman and a much older man and the same young woman with the teenage girls in her charge.

It is an unsettling and innovative exploration of the deadly sin of lust which - disappointingly - doesn't go as far as perhaps it might in unveiling the full extent of the perversions which are merely alluded to (extreme narcissism, lesbianism, paedophilia and perhaps worse).  Pierre Granier-Deferre's approach may be too cautious, a tad too wary of causing offence, but the lead performances - from Michel Aumont and Elizabeth Bourgine - are mesmerising, making this an uncomfortable but seductive voyage into what was, at the time of the film's release, pretty much uncharted territory.

Film Synopsis

Shortly after she takes up a teaching post in a reputable private school, Jeanne Kern begins to receive offensive letters from an unknown admirer.  The school's principal, Monsieur Ketti, becomes concerned when he is given a photograph depicting a female orgy, with the face of one woman cut out.  Jeanne is determined not to be intimidated, but things come to a head when her colleagues, family and parents of pupils at the school begin to receive copies of the compromising photograph.  Someone appears to be determined to drive her away - but why?