School for Love

Above all, 'Futures vedettes' (= French for 'future stars') is a very 19-Fifties-film. It must have done well, I guess, in the many local movie-houses of the era -- providing entertainment in anyone's neighborhood before television was around. The charm of those days, a truly great period in the history of film, radiates off undiminished.

While watching 'Futures vedettes', one should realize that its attraction is for a large part provided by our knowledge of what came after wards: we see a young Brigitte Bardot in an early stage of her impressive career. One year before BB's break-through in 'Et Dieu creea la femme', to be exact, the film that catapulted her to world fame.

'Futures vedettes' already gives us a taste of well-known Bardot-trademarks: love for dancing (you may know that Brigitte qualified as a professional ballet dancer), love for animals (bathing in a pond between Chinese fish), and putting up anyone's temperature by modestly appearing naked.

Another catching feature of 'Futures vedettes' is its large amount of melodrama -- even when measured to 19-Fifties-standards. This adds a flavor that some may like and others may not. Anyway, it suits well with this film's setting in Vienna.