La Leçon particulière (1968)
Directed by Michel Boisrond

Film Review

The plot of La Leçon particulière is painfully familiar - a classic coming of age scenario in which a precocious teenager falls for an older woman and savours his first taste of love before it all goes predictably wrong.  A talented filmmaker could have made something of even this contrived storyline - witness Claude Autant-Lara's Le Blé en herbe (1954) - but in the hands of journeyman director Michel Boisrond it ends up as tacky and formulaic as you expect it to, and the only thing that makes it worth watching are the quietly engaging performances from lead actors Nathalie Delon and Renaud Verley, both at their best near the start of their respective careers.

Boisrond enjoyed some success with his good-natured comedies, such his Brigitte Bardot vehicles Une Parisienne (1957) and Voulez-vous danser avec moi? (1959), but seldom acquitted himself well when he strayed onto more serious territory.  La Leçon particulière is an attractively shot film that is not without charm but, lacking depth and maturity in the script department, it hardly rates as Boisrond's most satisfying film.  Francis Lai's score makes the film appear more saccharine than it really is, although it has doubtless added to its cult appeal (in common with several other films that Lai ruined).

This was Nathalie Delon's second film appearance and she is stunning.  It came immediately after her screen debut in Le Samouraï (1967), in which she appeared alongside her husband Alain Delon (whom she divorced shortly afterwards).  Michel Boisrond also made his first film appearance in this film, which is presumably what led him to cast Madame Delon in her second film.  The latter's co-star, Renaud Verley (brother of the better known actor Bernard Verley) enjoyed a brief period of fame after this film, starring with Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in André Cayatte's Les Chemins de Katmandou (1969) and then with Dirk Bogarde and Helmut Berger in Luchino Visconti's La Caduta degli dei (1969).  Now, what ever became of the film's other star-in-the-making, Bernard Le Coq..?

Film Synopsis

Olivier Fermond is a comfortably off 17-year-old high school student who enjoys chasing girls of his own age.  Then he discovers real love, in the form of Frédérique Dampierre, a woman eight years his senior.  With her partner, Italian racing car driver Enrico Fontana, away at a racing venue, Frédérique begins a passionate love affair with Olivier.  When Fontana returns, Olivier knows the romance cannot continue...