The Adolescent

Just before World War II, a 12-year-old girl leaves Paris with her parents for a summer vacation in the country. Instead of playing with her friends there, she develops an adolescent (hence the film's title) infatuation with a 30-year-old doctor that has recently joined the village. The older man, understandably, does not return her affections but instead manifests an even less-advised interest in the girl's Dutch mother.

La Adolescente is one of those quiet, summertime films that doesn't need big twists or heavy drama to hit you. It works in the small details - the awkwardness of growing up, the confusion between admiration and love, the sting of realizing someone you idealized doesn't belong to you.

As a viewer, you follow Marie's inner world slowly blooming. The film treats her perspective with so much respect that you feel her innocence without sexualizing it - which is rare for the era. Her crush on Alexandre is painted as something emotional, not physical: a girl attaching her heart to the first adult who gives her attention, while not fully understanding the weight of adult emotions.

The film also explores the contrast between generations: Marie descobrindo o mundo, and her mother rediscovering life after years of routine. Alexandre becomes the "bridge" between these two worlds, and the movie shows - without ever being explicit - that adults carry their own heartbreaks and wounds, even when children believe they have everything figured out.

The ending is quiet but powerful. Life goes on, the village goes on, and Marie realizes that growing up means losing illusions but gaining perspective. It's a film about cycles, innocence, disappointment, and acceptance - told with the softness typical of 70s French cinema.

Beautiful photography, a gentle score, and a story that stays with you if you've ever had a childhood crush that felt like the whole world.

Directed by no-one less than Jeanne Moreau, this movie, known for it's quality as one of the standards in the 'Coming of age' genre, is far more than that. It's a story about 'La douceur de vivre', or the 'The gentle way of life' - the pureness of French country-life in the years before the second world war. It's an extremely well crafted story of love, death and life, and the little secrets the villagers share, seen through the eyes of a perfectly authentic 13-year-old girl.

Simone Signoret gives a stunning performance, subtle and genuine, as the grand-mere (Mamie) of Marie, guiding her grandchild through the summer and her first encounters with love and romance. Marie falls in love with a Jewish doctor, 30 years of age, only to find that the doctor has more interest in her Dutch mother, who is in the middle of marital troubles with her dominant spouse. Marie realizes she will be the only one who can save her parents marriage and, with the help of Mamie, consults the local 'witch' to create a love-potion.

The question is, will everything return to normal, before the end of summer? And if war awaits, will life ever be the same again? One thing's for sure: you'll only lose childhood once, and it will never return...