They tease everybody these girls, including one another. That’s Caroline (Caroline Cartier) on the left, Kareen in the middle (Françoise Guégan) and Joëlle (Danièle Croisy) on the right. A right trio of little teasers they are.
Its 1969, and our teasing trio are on their 3 week September ‘vacance’ in a quiet seaside village in Saint-Gils. They’re staying on the beach in this turretted tower.
With the ‘Boissons’ cafe underneath providing them with breakfast pancakes.
And any other cream or chocolate cake they fancy.
Its a girly giggle-fest. What fun they must be having. Even if what they’re finding so funny isn’t always so obviously hilarious to an outside viewer (like us watching the film) I think alot of their gaming and goofing around gets somewhat lost in translation (for example the play and punning on words like Orouët)
They’re joined on this vacation by Joëlle’s boss Gilbert (Bernard Menez), who has the hots for Joëlle. Unfortunately for Gilbert, her romantic interest in him is merely lukewarm.
It isn’t long before gormless Gilbert is having the fun (i.e. the piss) taken out of him.
Caroline and Kareen delight in tormenting and mocking the hapless twat. He tries his best to play along with being played around with.
Made into their docile donkey. Having his ears pulled. Being jibbed and gibed at with gloating girly glee.
Its obvious that his strenuous efforts at trying to be their amusing male companion aren’t going to get anywhere. All the girls find him vaguely irritating; their teasing of him edges towards ridicule and barely concealed contempt. I’m even starting to feel a bit sorry for him.
Eventually Gilbert leaves, sick of being treated like “an imbecile” Then Kareen leaves as well, having quickly grown tired of her brief fling with sailor Patrick. Only Caroline and Joëlle remain at the end, sat here sulking through the cold final days of the vacation.
And then its time for them also to close the house, pack up, and go back to their boring office jobs in the city, their brief fling with freedom over for another year.
I was initially well into this film. I liked the idea of spending 3 weeks (or 2 1/2 hours) by the sea with 3 fun loving lovely looking French girls. But after about an hour their inane screeching and squealing got a bit tiresome. Their ladette-lite personalities too shallow and superficial, their languorous aimlessness too facile and banally inconsequential to be actively engaging. Well, so it felt to me.
I was a bit disappointed come the end. That I hadn’t enjoyed their enjoyment more, not felt as enamoured, or attracted, by these girls as I expected I would be.
But I’ll keep the film. And maybe the next time I watch it I’ll feel more in the mood for messing and mucking about with them.
Dir: Jacques Rozier, France
7/10
PS: The girl who played Caroline, Caroline Cartier (below) died at the age of 42. Why such an early death? What happened to her? Was there a tragedy waiting to befall her? She’s yet another one of these French actresses that fell away into obscurity. And I’m not likely to have any of these questions answered. Nothing online can be found about her. She’s just tantalisingly disappeared, exquisitely vanished into thin air.
Windows on the World 