THE ROMANTIC AGE
UK, 1949, 78 minutes, Black-and-white.
Mai Zetterling, Hugh Williams, Margot Graham, Petula Clark, Carol Marsh, Raymond Lovell, Paul Dupuy, Judith Furse, Jean Anderson, Adrienne Corri.
All Directed by Edmond Greville.
It would be very interesting to read up on how this film was accepted in the late 1940s. In the 21st-century, there is a much greater awareness about the role of older males, especially teachers, and their responsibility towards female students and relationships with them.
This film is something of a combination of the themes from Lolita and a variation on Fatal Attraction.
Swedish actress, Mai Zetterling plays a precocious French student at a British finishing school, spoilt, manipulative, provocative to her new, very serious, teacher, Hugh Williams. He reacts badly to her so she decides then to seduce him. The film shows her manoeuvres. It also shows his gradual involvement and attraction and stupid decisions, possibly ruining his life.
Some of the teachers at the school raise the issues of suspicion about a male teacher and young female students. The teacher also has to deal with his former concert pianist wife, Margot Grahame, and his teenage daughter who is now enrolled in the school, Petula Clark.
In one sense, a curiosity item, moral issues of the past, seen in the light of the present. This is particularly the case at the comic ending when the put-upon butler, played by Raymond Lovell, is so irritated with the young French girl that he threatens to spank her, thinks the better of it – and then put that aside and does!
1. The title? The light touch, girls at 18? Yet the serious subject? The alternate title, Naughty Arlette?
2. The English setting, the countryside, the late 1940s? The finishing school for girls? The interiors, dormitories, classrooms, offices? The contrast with the mansion in London? Nightclub sequences? The musical score?
3. The serious theme, touches of Lolita, a variation on Fatal Attraction? Arlette and her determination to humiliate Arnold Dickson? Feeling insulted by him, vengeance, playing up to him, his response?
4. The issue seen in the context of the 21st-century, sexual harassment, legal issues?
5. The ethos of the girls’ school, the principal, the decision to have a male teacher, the reactions of the more conservative staff? Warning the principal?
6. The girls, seen as a group, individuals, Arlette standing out, French, wealth, her manner, arrogant? Her reaction to Arnold, provocative in the front row, upset by his reactions, his getting her to carry books…? Discussions with the other girls, the bet about seducing him?
7. Arnold, background, serious, academic, the arts? His accepting the position, contrasting with teaching boys? His wife, concert pianist and her career, giving it up? Julie, her age, exuberant, going to the school, making friends with the other girls? With Arlette?
8. Arnold, his classes, serious tone, the response of the girls, the interruptions? Arnold at home, with his family, strict with Julie? Urging her not to be friends with Arlette?
9. Arlette, her determination, being present with Arnold? Pretending to be sick, his home visits and her being provocative?
10. The treasure hunt, Arlette lost, the setup in the hut, her shoe, the rain, the kiss, his carrying her to the bus, his reaction at home? The consequences, his infatuation? Arlette playing up to it?
11. Julie, her visit to Arlette’s house, meeting the Frenchman, his offer to paint her, her return home, her father smelling the alcohol? Seeing her father at home, her being upset, at the swimming pool, her decision to forge the letters, going to the club, her father arriving, her frantic dancing, his taking her away? Their talking, the confession?
12. Arnold, correcting the work, his wife playing the piano, her being upset? His planning to leave? Going to the club, his reaction to Julie’s dancing? The decision to go to Arlette, to say goodbye?
13. Arlette and the girls, Mission accomplished, her travelling to Rome? The denunciation of Arnold?
14. The butler, his service in the house, Arlette’s treatment of him, his threatening to spank her – and his actually spanking her? Audience reaction – spanking inappropriate, but on his side!
