This film was my cult film when I was a teenager (I must have seen it 10 times). Now I'm older (!) and I saw it again recently. I was slightly disappointed because it was not as good as in my souvenirs but still, I would recommend it and say it's a great film. If you want to see another side of France than what you usually get to see, this film is interesting. I just read Carson Mc Culler's "The Member of the Wedding" and was surprised to see how many common points there were with "L'effrontée". Does anyone know if the film was inspired by it? Common points: - The main character is a teenage girl, she's bored and a bit lonely; it's the summer and she watches other people having fun. She hangs out with a little neighbor (in the film) or her cousin (in the book), both younger than her. - She has no mother. She is raised by her father and by a nanny/helper. - At one point, she watches older teenagers having fun in a dancing club and feels a bit jealous, though she won't admit it. - To feel "grown-up", she uses perfume. - At one point, she follows an older guy into a hotel and when she understands that he wants to sleep with her, she hits him on the head with a glass globe (in the film) or a glass pitcher (in the book), escapes,and then asks her dad: "If you hit someone on the head with something very heavy, made of glass, do you think it could kill him?" At some another point, she says "the world is very sudden" in the book and in French, in the film, she says "le monde est brusque" (same meaning; that was also the word used in the French translation of the novel). That's too much to be a coincidence, isn't it? - And finally, both characters feel that they are "the member to no club" and that they are different because they don't feel "connected" to anyone...

Claude Miller likes to portray unhappy people as he believes that nothing happens to happy people. His films have won him both critical as well as Box Office success. L'Effrontee shows how hard it is to live as a neglected child with desires and aspirations. Claude Miller's poetic mis- en-scene imparted divine exquisiteness to a pure tale of uncertainty. Charlotte experiences the passage from childhood to adolescence in a difficult manner. Miller has created one of the best coming of age film in years. Things become tough for Charlotte when she is introduced to an alien world of music. She reminds us of our childhood dreams and frustrations. Miller has always championed the cause of young characters in his films portraying complex personal relationships. L'Effrontee is similar to his earlier film "La meilleure facon de marcher" as he has aimed to portray joys and sorrows experienced by adolescents in their formative years. As a cinéaste who learned his métier from Truffaut, Claude Miller will continue to create stories of troubled childhoods.