Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Adieu Philippine (1962)

"World-wide (English title) (informal English title): Farewell, Philippine" (IMDB)

A guy meets two girls. He dates both, together initially and later separately. He decides to take a vacation in Corsica before he is called up to fight in Algeria. The two girls appear there later, looking for him.

Love triangles are a fertile premise for fictional stories. The threesome is just a variation on this premise which became popular with the sexual liberation of the sixties (another French film, this time featuring a guy and two girls, came out a few days after this one, and is considerably more famous). Philippine (by the way, this is not the name of a character) is not a bad film, and has deservedly been praised for the extremely natural performances given by its actors, many of whom had little-to-no prior experience or subsequent career. There is not much in the way of a plot, and I guess most of the enjoyment is derived from seeing these people act naturally doing the things young people usually do (though I wouldn't vouch for the believability of these two young female characters, but what do I know about life, right?). I guess this is the kind of film the director character in Day for Night, which I have reviewed a few days ago, predicted as the future of cinema: no studio, no stars.

Rating: 57

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