Noce blanche (1989) White Wedding 

Directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau

Starring Vanessa Paradis, Bruno Cremer

A taboo breaking romantic drama.

Middle aged philosophy teacher "Franois" makes a connection with a 17 year old pupil "Mathilde" who although late for lessons when she bothers to turn up at all shows a real flair for philosophy and psychology but has a cynical attitude towards life. Mathilde is a problem case that most of the teachers want out of the school but thanks to the determination of Franois she is given a last chance.

Franois starts tutoring Mathilde at her home and the inevitable happens, he is seduced by her prodigeous intelligence, then by her beauty and youth. Despite the fact that hes married with a very attractive wife and that as her tutor he knows what they are doing is wrong she brings out the youth in him and he fails to resist.

Gradually Franois learns some frightening facts about Mathildes past and family, with this knowledge and his wifes threats to leave him he tries to cool the affair down. Silent phone calls are made to his house day and night and the shop run by his wife is vandalised. Mathilde sets out to make him jealous until he loses his temper, drags her into an empty classroom where he bawls her out for all the trouble shes causing but they end up caught in an intimate embrace and caught out by the Head of the school.

He is posted to a school in Dunkirk, his wife unsurprisingly leaves him and he settles into his new life until..........!

Convincing acting from the leads, you could understand him falling for this girl that hes already put on a pedestal (plus of course its Vanessa Paradis). There are no sex scenes but I was surprised at the amount of nudity (not exploitative) because according to IMDB Vanessa Paradis was 17 when the film was made.

The story actually had more depth than I would have expected and thankfully didnt turn into a bunny boiler type movie. This was Vanessa Paradiss first leading role and luckily she was perfect for the part, she played a similar character in the film Eliza several years later but with a very different plot line and conclusion.

Recommended for the performances and interesting (although certainly not unique) story line.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 15.