The plot of this film--two fathers take their teenage daughters to the beach, and one has a sexual affair with the other friend's daughter who is also his daughter's best friend--may seem familiar to Americans of a certain age. That's because this French movie was re-made in 1984 as the film "Blame It on Rio" with Michael Caine. "Blame It on Rio" was strangely sold back then as one the "Porky's"-style sex comedies of the era, which typically focused on adolescent boys who were trying to "lose it". And while adolescent boys of the 80's no doubt enjoyed seeing voluptuous lead actress Michelle Johnson in all her glory (and that movie also marked the rather inauspicious debut of Demi Moore), it's doubtful too many of them could really relate to the middle-aged angst of the male protagonist played by Caine. This theme though is MUCH more common in French movies of the 70's and 80's (in fact the 17-year-old actress here Agnes Sorral is a relatively mature young woman compared to the objects of middle-aged male affection in movies like "Beau Pere").
This is a more serious movie then "Blame It on Rio", but like that film the end is kind of a cop-out that doesn't really puncture the middle-age male fantasy. But that's alright I guess. Ironically, this movie has an adult sensibility to it that is a lot more mature and less "teen-obsessed" than the entire entertainment culture of America today. (Although they would NEVER make a mainstream film like this today in America, we do have 10,000 "barely legal" hardcore porn videos and an entire culture that generally seems to be aimed at people with a fifteen-year-old mentality).
This kind of reminded me of a David Hamilton film, but it is much better made dramatically speaking. And while I'll always have a certain misbegotten affection for "Blame It on Rio" (which I first saw as a teenager), this is the better movie.
