Olivia

Marie-Claire Olivia arrives at a girl's school outside Paris, fresh from London. It's near the end of the 19th Century. There's good food, the grounds are magnificent, and the headmistress, Edwige Feuillère, is a lovely woman who wants her girls to be happy, and reads her lessons in literature in a very dramatic manner. The food is excellent, the kitchen supervised by Yvonne de Bray; she may rattle on foolishly, but her beef stew is delicious.

Yet there is something odd about the school. It's not there are factions. That seems obligatory in any movie about schoolgirls. It's the way the factions are set up. Is one under the spell of Mme Feuillère, or of Mlle Simone Simon, with her migraines and her weakness and self-indulgence? As the movie continues, the sexual components of these factions become more apparent.... as does the frisson between the two arch-rivals.

The movie is populated almost entirely by women. True, there are three investigators towards the end, disapproving and censorious; also an early appearance by Philippe Noiret; his first had been in GIGI, directed by Jacqueline Audry, also the director of this film. Through 1960 he appeared without a credit in four films; one of the others was an Agnes Varda feature.

Noiret, however, is mere window dressing for a scene. In sum, this looks like the same impulse as THE WOMEN, except here the men are largely abstract, annoying outsiders.