Wanted: Babysitter

This film was almost universally panned at the time of its release. It was the final film of distinguished French director Rene' Clement and clearly not one of his best. But....

There is something about this film that is quite compelling. Agreed, the plot is full of holes and certainly stretches belief and logic. But there is a melancholy mood that few films ever achieve. One has to credit Clement for this (non-trivial) achievement. Generating and communicating melancholia is hard to do and somehow Clement manages it.

Credit must also go to French actress Maria Schneider who plays the role of the confused and trapped Michelle, just right. Her acting is minimalistic, and ultimately believable. In a smaller role, Italian comedian Renato Pozzetto, playing the scruffy Gianni ( Michelle's friend), brings just the right seediness, innocence and melancholy to his scenes. Worth a look. Worth a partial revaluation.

A young woman (Maria Schneider)is lured to a babysitting gig in a remote mansion by her treacherous roommate (Sydney Rome). When her young charge wakes up though, she realizes that he's been kidnapped and that she's being used as an unwitting front in the kidnapping. This movie was directed by a respected French director, Rene Clement, and is in black and white for some reason. It is a rather ridiculous melodrama, however, that doesn't really live up to its arty pretensions. On the other hand, people drawn in by its exploitative English title, "Wanted: Babysitter" ( I only understand the "jeun fille" part of the French title, but it seems pretty exploitative too) were probably pretty disappointed at its relative lack of exploitative elements. It was probably mistaken by many for one of the "sexy babysitter" movies of the era (i.e. "The Babysitter", "Weekend with the Babysitter", "Jailbait Babysitter", ad infinitum), especially with the Maria "Last Tango in Paris' Schneider in the lead.

I actually kind of like movies like this though that fall in the no-man's land between art and exploitation. The absurd plot kind of reminded me of an Italian giallo (although it's slow and subtle in a French way rather than delirious and over-the-top in an Italian). Regrettably--nay, tragically--Schneider has no nude scenes, but she's still pretty good. This is actually the third best movie I've seen her in after "Last Tango" and "The Passenger" (. . .well, actually I've only seen her in those two other movies). Rome does have nude scenes, and, surprisingly, she too is pretty good (I found her sexy but incredibly annoying in Polanski's "What?" and just plain irritating in the Italian anthology "Sex with a Smile").

This is a pretty unusual movie which I wouldn't recommend to everybody, but if it sounds interesting to you . . .

What a cast! Maria Schneider, Sydne Rome, two absolute beauties, Nadja Tiller, another beauty, Vic Morrow, Robert Vaughn and the unique Renato Pozzetto, who kind of steals the film with his role of an involuntary comic, excellently played by the actor. The story is trivial, the kidnapping of a boy for a ransom. The implications between the characters are interesting though. Worth seeing especially for Maria Schneider and Renato Pozzetto.

I was not disappointed by this last René Clément's film. It's an international cast, as he did for LA COURSE DU LIEVRE A TRAVERS LES CHAMPS, a couple of years earlier. Not a bad movie which the topic reminded me Yves Boisset's FOLLE A TUER. The nanny and the wealthy kid about to be abducted. Not a masterpiece but certainly not a garbage movie. You would not find such features now. Yes, it's a typical downbeat scheme, as we often saw forty years ago, especially from France. And not only. Good performances too, despite the fact that there was no great actors in the cast. It's also a rather rare film, hard to find and no often released even on French channels.

I love watching such movies from time to time, gloomy and so sad.

From reading other reviews here it doesn't seem like this film has too good of a reputation. This surprises me. I found Wanted: Babysitter to be a very good crime-thriller. Having said that, I am not familiar at all with its director René Clément's other work. It appears from what I read that he was a renowned film-maker whose career was latterly panned by the critics. This film was his last offering and it seems to have suffered especially badly in this way.

I just cannot get behind the dislike though as overall I found the film to be very involving. I thought Maria Schneider was fine in the lead role and was ably supported by the likes of Robert Vaughn, Vic Morrow and Sydne Rome. The storyline is compelling enough and there is a fair amount of tension generated. The overall tone is gloomy and downbeat which is certainly in keeping with the film's French origins, seeing as 70's thrillers from that country seem to often be like this. Furthermore, the version of the film I watched was a public domain copy that was for some reason in black and white. I have no idea why this should be seeing as the film is clearly a colour production. It sounds like it may have been released this way for some obscure TV market perhaps. But whatever the reason, the funny thing is that the black and white presentation actually adds to the overall feel of the film. It only adds to the downbeat ambiance and very probably makes it a better film.

All I can say finally is that Wanted: Babysitter is nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. I would even go as far as to say that it is a good 70's thriller and is well worth checking out.