La drôlesse

A strong analogy with William Wyler's masterful "the collector" (1965).But "la drôlesse" is a good movie on its own,probably Jacques Doillon's finest hour.

François,a hung-up young man,locks up Madeleine ,a teenage girl ,in an attic.François is an outcast,unable to integrate well into a society. Here begins a "in Camera" drama ,with a subtle development.Soon ,we do not know anymore who the prisoner is and who the jailer is.An inhibited person,François is completely baffled when Madeleine tells him that she wants to be pregnant by him.As some critics noticed when the movie was released ,the keyword is "games".The two characters seem to play dad and daughter ,dad and mom ,and so on....

Madeleine Desdevises,who was very promising,died from leukemia shortly afterwards.

This story is wrong on so many levels - a French pre-teen is kidnapped by the village idiot (or at least misfit) who literally carts her off in a trailer attached to his moped. (This, after sexually propositioning her mother and being rebuffed.) Oddly enough, she submits to her abduction as if it's all a bit of a lark. Once back at his pad (the attic of a barn, by the looks of it), he installs a primitive surveillance system and warns her not to try and escape. It's all looking pretty dark by this point, and we fear he will turn into some kind of monster. Instead he mellows and even shows her small acts of kindness, emerging as merely a sad loner. The power balance inevitably shifts - a kind of Stockholm syndrome scenario - and by the end of it, she is free. Was she smart and resourceful enough to suss him out and get the better of him, or just feel sorry for him? In any event, she comes out looking a lot cleverer than him.

A truly beautiful film about two misunderstood characters that form an enviable bond in the strangest manner possible.