A Gorgeous Girl Like Me

1972 French film by François Truffaut

12 September 1972 (1972-09-12)

Running time

100 minutesCountryFranceLanguageFrenchBox office684,919 admissions (France)^[1]

A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (French: Une belle fille comme moi), also known as A Gorgeous Bird Like Me, is a 1972 French film directed by François Truffaut, starring Bernadette Lafont. It is based on Henry Farrell's 1967 novel of the same name.

Truffaut called it "a sarcastic comedy thriller."^[2]

Plot

Stanislas Previne is a young sociologist preparing a thesis on criminal women. He meets Camille Bliss in prison to interview her. Camille is accused of having murdered her lover Arthur and her father. She tells Stanislas about her life and her love affairs.

Stanislas, much to the frustration of his secretary, who also has a crush on him, soon falls in love with Camille and works to find the evidence to prove her innocence. His secretary tries to convince the sociologist that Camille is a "manipulative slut" but he cannot be convinced. Through investigation, the sociologist and his secretary find a young boy, an amateur filmmaker, who has captured the evidence they need on film to secure Camille's release from prison.

Once free, Camille, who always has loved music and has seduced the cabaret singer Sam Golden earlier in the film, becomes a cause célèbre and a singing star. Stanislas meets her after a performance, and she seduces him at her home; however, her husband (who is cuckolded many times during the film) discovers them and beats him up. Camille kills her husband and then plants the gun on her passed-out paramour.

When Stanislas is imprisoned for murder, Camille will do nothing to help the man who once freed her. As he cleans up the prison yard, in the film's final segment, the camera pans to show Stanislas's secretary typing a manuscript on a nearby balcony, presumably the thesis that Stanislas began, but this time preparing one that will expose Camille as the manipulative seductress that Stanislas discovered her to truly be.

Cast

Bernadette Lafont as Camille Bliss
André Dussollier as Stanislas Prévine
Claude Brasseur as Maître Murene
Charles Denner as Arthur
Guy Marchand as Roger aka Sam Golden
Anne Kreis as Hélène
Philippe Léotard as Clovis Bliss
Gilberte Géniat as Isobel Bliss
Michel Delahaye as Marchal
Danièle Girard as Florence Golden
Martine Ferrière as prison secretary
Jacob Weizbluth as Alphonse, the mute
Jean-François Stévenin as the newspapers seller (uncredited)
François Truffaut as a journalist (voice, uncredited)^[3]

References

^ Box Office information for Francois Truffaut films at Box Office Story
^ Tho audiences may be jaded, Truffaut will remain Truffaut Mills, Bart. Chicago Tribune 6 Aug 1972: i13.
^ Allen, Don. Finally Truffaut. New York: Beaufort Books. 1985. ISBN 0-8253-0335-4. OCLC 12613514. pp. 233.