The Adolescent movie synopsis. The summer of 1939. Marie (Simone Signoret), at 13, goes with her parents to visit her grandmother in a small town near Avignon. Although rumors of war reach the countryside, it’s an idyllic place. Marie’s parents are constantly making love.
Surrounded by sexual frankness, Marie fancies herself a woman and develops a crush on Alexander, the town’s young Jewish doctor. She’s despondent when he treats her as if she were a child. After Marie’s father abruptly leaves for a few weeks to assist with a relative’s harvest, Marie’s mother and the doctor disappear into the woods for hours at a time. Marie tries to spy on them. When dad returns, what will the family and the doctor do?
The Adolescent (French: L’Adolescente) is a French drama film directed by Jeanne Moreau in 1978, released January 1979. It was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. Set deep in the French countryside just before the start of World War II, it shows the often idyllic life of a remote village in the mountainous Auvergne where a family from Paris have come to spend a holiday with relations, an occasion which marks a coming-of-age for their daughter Marie, the adolescent of the title.
The Adolescent (1979)
Directed by: Jeanne Moreau
Starring: Simone Signoret, Francis Huster, Laetitia Chauveau, Edith Clever, Jacques Weber, Hugues Quester, Maurice Baquet, Nadine Basile, Françoise Bette, Juliette Brac
Screenplay by: Jeanne Moreau, Henriette Jelinek
Production Design by: Noëlle Galland
Cinematography by: Pierre Gautard
Film Editing by: Colette Leloup
Costume Design by: Michèle Cerf, Melusine Shamber
Music by: Philippe Sarde
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Parafrance (France)
Release Date: January 24, 1979
Views: 1523