Why a 5.5 rating ? I don't understand such an average rating. Pierre Granier Deferre is an immense filmmaker, he has produced pure marvels, powerful movies. This Private Course is quite disturbing, very daring. The production is mastered, and the actors are excellent. It is true that the course of the action and the plot are peculiar and confusing, but that is precisely what I liked. I saw this film for the third time and I understood much better the psychological issues, which at first glance are not easy to detect. This social and psychological portrait is disturbing and we remember it. Special mention to Elizabeth Bourgine who apparently found it hard to come back after this film.

...and finally failing.Slanderous mail ("le corbeau" ) and a lousy school with a dirty headmaster ("les diaboliques" ) will fatally make the viewer think of French master HG Clouzot.Granier-Deferre tried to "update" our film noir genius's work : the heroine is completely naked half of the time,there's an open ending,he uses Marianne Faithful's superb "ballad of Lucy Jordan" -although the connection with the movie escapes me - and he hints at lesbianism (which Clouzot had already done in "Quai des orfèvres" ) .

The only asset of the movie is Elisabeth Bourgine's presence ,an ambiguous woman with a child's face .

Pierre Granier-Deferre has seen better days: "le chat" ,"une étrange affaire".