DVD: Les Bonnes Femmes (Chabrol, 1960)

The experience of watching this film was actually somewhat painful. The film follows three naive women who are some of the more annoying female protagonists of any film that I have seen. They are giggly, bitchy, superficial, and completely delusional. But, the film has a pretty stellar finale that mostly makes up for almost the entire film that preceded it.

The film has many of the features of the French New Wave, a movement that never really interested me. The film is all shot on location around Paris.

Along with the aforementioned issues I have with the women, the men are almost just as bad. The men flirt with any woman they see, feel them up, harass them in swimming pools, and even bang their heads on tables in restaurants. I despised everyone in this film, which I learned was the point. What happens when young, attractive women are so naive and careless? What happens when men get their way over and over again with the relentlessly submissive women? The last scene of Les Bonnes Femmes happens; and for me, it felt so very good to watch.