Therese and Isabelle (1968) 118m
Don't let it worry you that this film draws sniggers from gay audiences who are used to a more up-front, in-your-face style of contemporary cinema. Radley Metzger's film of two girls who fall in love is one of his best efforts - more interesting than the dull CAMILLE 2000 and less 'arty' than THE LICKERISH QUARTET (which takes this film's commingling of past/present to extremes). It's also interesting to look back on now in light of the path that Metzger's career took - as the times became more permissive he eventually settled into making hardcore porn.
Therese (Anna Gael) visits the now-empty finishing school she attended as a young girl. Her travels around the grounds and through the dorms remind her of Isabelle (Barbara Laage), her only true friend there. The glances that Therese and Isabelle give each other suggest early on that they are attracted to each other romantically - eventually they will become lovers. Film has all the ingredients of prime exploitation - French schoolgirls, a sexually repressive atmosphere, forbidden love - yet vies for decorum. The scene in which the two girls rent a room for a chance to be alone is particularly well handled. Elegantly shot in widescreen black and white, and set in beautiful (natural and architectural) locations, THERESE AND ISABELLE is something of an oddity. Certainly there were few films of this type intended for legitimate theatrical distribution in the late 60s (it would be only a couple of years later that nudity and sex would suddenly run rampant in commercial cinema). The inclusion of scenes involving masturbation and oral sex are particularly daring - although Metzger would have fared better if he had left out the purple prose dubbed over them, as what reads erotically on the printed page doesn't always translate well on screen. As in CLAIRE'S KNEE, you may find the most erotic moment of this film one of the most simple: Isabelle recites a poem while Therese strokes her lightly with her fingertips. THERESE AND ISABELLE isn't a great movie, but it is much better than it could have been, and provides a useful addition to other more widely-discussed entries in cinema's ongoing 'Is it Art or Exploitation?' debate.
There isn't a lot of sexual/romantic chemistry between Gael and Laage (the casting of older actresses to play schoolgirls is almost a necessary flaw - Metzger would have been condemned if he'd used real teenagers) and consequently the ending of the film isn't as sad as it should be. I don't see that it hurts the story - as it is framed within Therese's reminiscences it is more appropriately wistful. This is part and parcel of the 'European' feel that Metzger was aiming for. It may be too demure or affected for modern audiences, but the type of contemporary gay cinema that assertively draws attention to sexuality isn't necessarily progressive - it's just reactionary. THERESE AND ISABELLE is not driven by sexual politics; it is simply a love story. The fact that the two lovers are female is inconsequential, for gay audiences or otherwise.
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