Virgin (1988)
"36 fillette" (original title)

A night in the life of a young woman who wishes to learn and experience more of life. The men she meets have as much to learn from her as they can offer her, or more.

Director:

Catherine Breillat

Writers:

Catherine Breillat (scenario), Catherine Breillat (novel),

Stars:

Delphine Zentout, Etienne Chicot, Olivier Parnière

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Delphine Zentout	...	Lili
Etienne Chicot	...	Maurice
Olivier Parnière	...	Bertrand
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Boris Golovine
Berta Domínguez D.	...	Anne-Marie
Jean-François Stévenin	...	Le père
Diane Bellego	...	Georgia
Adrienne Bonnet	...	La mère
Stéphane Moquet	...	Ca-Pe
Cécile Henry	...	Maetitia
Michel Scotto di Carlo	...	Stéphane
Anny Chasson	...	Mme Weber
Jean-Claude Binoc	...	M. Weber
Christian Lafitte	...	Le conducteur
Christian Andia	...	Portier 'Opium'

Storyline

Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third. The playboy's mix of depression and misogyny ends their unconsummated affair, so Lili has to hunt elsewhere.

---

Plot Keywords:

concert pianist | disco | 14 year old | virgin | virginity | 

---

Genres:

Romance | Drama

---

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

6 January 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Egy kamaszlány

Box Office

Gross:

$410,109 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CB Films, French Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Benny's Video (1992)

---

Soundtracks

"I'll Walk Alone"
Performed by Ricky Nelson
Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Editions CHAPPELL
Disques CAPITOL-PATHE MARCONI
(End title)

User Reviews

the distractions of puberty

In France a young girl's coming-of-age usually means going topless for the first time on the beach at San Tropez, but the young heroine of Catherine Breillat's semi-autobiographical psycho-drama is no typical teen nymphet, showing more physical and emotional maturity at the tender age of 14 (going on 24) and an instinct for sexual provocation far beyond her actual experience. Lili may look like a sullen, restless, temperamental flirt, but only to men with one thing on their mind, in particular the jaded, aging playboy who pursues her to the bitter end of infatuation. Breillat directs her own script with a cool, clinical detachment, refusing to camouflage the cold mechanics of sex with any bogus soft-focus poetry. But because the film is so confident and impersonal it may be more of a tease than Lili herself, who in the end is only using all the complicated foreplay and frustration to help find a man who might release her from the terrible burden of virginity. C'est la vie.