''Benjamin'' (original title: ''Benjamin ou les Mémoires d'un puceau''; U.S title: ''The Diary of an Innocent Boy'') is a 1968 French comedy film directed by

Michel Deville Michel Deville (born 13 April 1931) is a French film director and screenwriter. Deville started his filmmaking career in the late 1950s, paralleling the emergence of the French New Wave directors. He never achieved the level of critical and int ...

who co-wrote the screenplay with Nina Companéez.

Plot

In the eighteenth century, seventeen-year-old virgin Benjamin comes with his old servant to stay at the estate of his aunt, Countess de Valandry, who is having an affair with Count Philippe. Benjamin is pursued by various women, including the beautiful Anne, who really loves Philippe.

Cast

Michèle Morgan Michèle Morgan (; née Simone Renée Roussel; 29 February 1920 – 20 December 2016) was a French film actress, who was a leading lady for three decades in both French cinema and Hollywood features. She is considered to have been one of the g ...

as Countess de Valandry. *

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recogni ...

as Anne *

Pierre Clémenti Pierre André Clémenti (28 September 1942 – 27 December 1999) was a French actor. Life and career Born in Paris to an unknown father and Rose Clémenti, a Corsican concierge whose surname he took, Clémenti had a difficult childhood and took ...

as Benjamin *

Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...

as Count Philippe *

Francine Bergé Francine Bergé (born 21 July 1938, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions a ...

as Marion * Anna Gaël as Célestine *

Catherine Rouvel Catherine Rouvel (born Catherine Vitale; 31 August 1939 in Marseille) is an acclaimed French actress. Her career spans from 1959 in television to 2004. She starred in Jean Renoir's ''Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe'', Marcel Carné's ''Les Assassins ...

as Victorine *

Jacques Dufilho Jacques Dufilho (19 February 1914 – 28 August 2005) was a French actor. He was born at Bègles (Gironde) and he died at Ponsampère (Gers). Life and career Dufilho appeared in 65 French productions. Moreover, he was frequently seen in Italian ...

as Camille *

Odile Versois Odile Versois (born Étiennette de Poliakoff-Baydaroff; 15 June 1930 – 23 June 1980) was a French actress who appeared in 47 film and television productions between 1948 and 1980. Versois was the sister of actresses Marina Vlady, Hélène ...

as Married woman

Production

Filming began in June 1967. The day before filming began, Catherine Deneuve's sister and fellow actress

Françoise Dorléac Françoise Paulette Louise Dorléac (21 March 194226 June 1967) was a French actress. She was the elder sister of Catherine Deneuve, with whom she starred in the 1967 musical, ''The Young Girls of Rochefort''. Her other films include Philippe ...

had died in a car accident. "It was a painful time in my life", she later recalled. "I was in a cloud. I turned a bit like a misty automaton. Fortunately, the grief did not mark the film." "''Benjamin'' was a role that I really liked," said Deneuve later. "It was a comedy, but in the spirit and tone particular."Interview with Catherine Deneuve, ''Catherine Deneuve Tribute site''
accessed 15 Sept 2014

Reception

Box office

The film was the eleventh most popular movie at the French box office in 1968.

Critical response

The critic for ''The Guardian'' claimed that "the dialogue is stylish without being witty and it is continuously and tiresomely arch." The ''Los Angeles Times'' said the film was "as superlatively acted as it is photographed and scored". ''The Washington Post'' said the film "has little to be said for it except is evidently authentic chateux".

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

wrote that Pierre Clementi "indicates adolescent innocence by being loose-limbed and girlish. It is essential for the boy to suggest the kind of man he will become once he has learned what everyone is so eager to teach him, but Clémenti looks as though he would become a lesbian."Pierre Clementi obituary
''The Guardian'' January 2000, accessed 13 September 2014

References

External links

* * * *
Review of film
at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''
Review of film
by

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

{{Michel Deville 1968 films 1960s historical comedy films 1968 romantic comedy films Films about virginity Films set in country houses Films set in the 18th century French coming-of-age comedy films French historical comedy films 1960s French-language films French romantic comedy films Louis Delluc Prize winners Romantic period films Films directed by Michel Deville 1960s historical romance films 1960s French films 1960s coming-of-age comedy films