''A Very Curious Girl'' (french: La Fiancée du pirate) is a 1969 French comedy-drama film directed, edited and co-written by Nelly Kaplan. Other English titles are ''Dirty Mary'' and ''Pirate's Fiancée''.

Plot

Marie is a young woman who lives in sheer poverty in the fictional village and ''

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

'' of Tellier (an allusion to '' La Maison Tellier'') with her mother, a woman of obscure origins suspected to be a Romanichel sorcerer, and her pet buck. Marie and her mother are despised by the locals although Marie is also a sexual object for them, including her lesbian boss Irène. One day, when her mother dies after a hit-and-run accident and the locals do not even bother to bury her, Marie decides that things have to change and starts to charge people who have sex with her. Eventually, she plans to take revenge on those people who take advantage of her.

Cast

* Bernadette Lafont as Marie *

Georges Géret Georges Géret (18 October 1924 – 7 April 1996) was a French film actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1954 and 1992. He was born in Lyon, France. Selected filmography * '' The Unfrocked One'' (1954) - Un militaire à l'Oflag et � ...

as Gaston Duvalier, the village guard *

Michel Constantin Michel Constantin (born Constantin Hokhloff, 13 July 1924 – 29 August 2003) was a French film actor. Biography Born to a Russian father and a Polish mother in Billancourt (near Paris), Constantin made his first film appearance in 1956. ...

as André, the projectionist *

Julien Guiomar Julien Guiomar (3 May 1928 in Morlaix, Finistère, Brittany – 22 November 2010 in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine), was a French film actor. The actor had retired to the Dordogne at Monpazier. The person who incarnated Colonel Vincent in ...

as the Duke *

Jean Parédès Jean Parédès (1914–1998) was a French film actor.Hayward p.145 Selected filmography * ''Three from St Cyr'' (1939) - Bréval * ''The Fatted Calf'' (1939) - Albert - le garçon de café * ''La Charrette fantôme'' (1939) - Un salutiste (uncre ...

as Monsieur Paul, the herbalist *

Francis Lax Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural Mu ...

as Émile, the ''commune'' council member *

Claire Maurier Claire Maurier (born Odette-Michelle-Suzanne Agramon; March 27, 1929) is a French actress who has appeared in more than 90 films since 1947. Life and career Maurier was born Odette-Michelle-Suzanne Agramon on March 27, 1929 in the French commune ...

as Irène, Marie's boss *

Marcel Pérès Marcel Pérès (born 15 July 1956, Oran, Algeria) is a French musicologist, composer, choral director and singer, and the founder of the early music group Ensemble Organum. He is an authority on Gregorian and pre-Gregorian chant. Pérès w ...

as Grandpa * Pascal Mazzotti : Abbé Dard * Jacques Masson : Hippolyte Duvalier, Gaston's son * Henry Czarniak : Julien, Irène's farmhand * Jacques Marin : Félix Lechat, the café owner * Micha Bayard : Mélanie « La Goulette » Lechat, Félix's wife *

Fernand Berset Fernand is a masculine given name of French origin. The feminine form is Fernande. Fernand may refer to: People Given name * Fernand Augereau (1882–1958), French cyclist * Fernand Auwera (1929–2015), Belgian writer * Fernand Baldet (1885– ...

: Jeanjean, the lingerie salesman * Renée Duncan : Fifine (Delphine), Émile's wife * Gilberte Géniat : Rose, the Duke's wife * Claire Olivier : Marie's mother *

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down," Malle's filmogr ...

: Jésus, the Duke's Spanish farmhand * Claude Makovski : Victor, the shop owner

Score

Georges Moustaki Georges Moustaki (born Giuseppe Mustacchi; 3 May 1934 – 23 May 2013) was an Egyptian-French singer-songwriter of Jewish Italo-Greek origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, ...

's soundtrack was released in the same year as the film. # Histoire du Cirque (1:22) # Duo (2:21) # La Mort (2:08) # Pierre et Nicole (2:44) # Thème de Franca (1:37) # A Lisbonne (

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

) (1:37) # Retour à L'hôtel (2:18) # Le Scandale / Suite (11:40) # Mona (1:31) # Anne et Claude au Musée (2:27) # Le Désespoir de Muriel (3:52) # La Déclaration d'Amour (2:25) # La Rupture (3.46) # Epilogue (2:25) # Une Petite Ile (1:30) # Anne et Claude (2:05) # Moi, Je Me Balance (2:46) # Marche de Marie (2:35)

Critical reception

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 d ...

'' listed ''A Very Curious Girl'' as one of Bernadette Lafont's most notable films. The website filmfanatic.org put this film into the category "Foreign Gem".

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

mentions "A curious girl" in her obituary and states Lafont's performance had been "brilliant".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Very Curious Girl, A 1969 films 1969 comedy-drama films French comedy-drama films 1960s French-language films Films shot in France Films about prostitution in France 1960s French films