Directed by John Guillermin
104 minutes
In English

I love this kind of film.....an American production, directed by a Brit, with a few American actors like Dean Stockwell (Blue Velvet), a French musical composer Georges Delerue (Les mepris, Jules et Jim), Swedish star Gunnel Lindblom (an Ingmar Bergman regular), and French actress Patricia Gozzi (Sundays and Cybele) all combined in a film shot along the rocky coast of Brittany, France. On top of it all, the original screenplay was written by Ennio Flaiano (the scriptwriter of Fellini's greatest films). Such a weird combination always leads to something quite unusual and mysterious. But as is often the case with such unique films, it was destined to become a film maudit—a "cursed film" which would be marginalized. And indeed, it almost immediately disappeared into oblivion after it was made.

Based on the 1954 novel Rapture in my Rags, the film takes place in France, and it's about a young girl whose wild imagination is suspected to be a sign of mental illness. Fifteen-year-old Patricia Gozzi plays the central role—a girl whose life is shifting sexually. She is bewildered by everything and attached to nothing. One day an escaped convict shows up at the farm where she lives, and that's the beginning of a film that is complex and rich and unforgettable. 

Child actress Patricia Gozzi gives a haunting performance, it has a great music score, and the stunning black and white cinematography will knock you off your feet. After this project the director John Guillermin would never again make anything even remotely as beautiful as this one, in fact he would be lured to Hollywood where he was forced to make junk, and that makes this outstanding effort even more remarkable. I don't want to say anything more about it except that it's a secret gem which has been totally left out of the cinema history books... but the few people that have seen it have never forgotten it. An extremely rare screening of this criminally neglected treasure... so don't miss it.