Marie Poupée

Since Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal, I've been searching for another 70s movie with Jeanne Goupil in, as she's played a huge role in my fashion tastes at the moment. So I found Marie Poupée, another film by the same director. There is a dream-like, surreal atmosphere to this film, as expected of Joel Seria. Unfortunately there was no English subtitles to be found, so I had to watch it half-understanding what was going on. Mainly I focused on the clothes that have very Lolita aesthetics to them, as Marie loves dolls and emulates them in style.



From what I can gather, Marie is an orphan that lives with her grandparents. It seems she behaves a lot younger than her actual age (seventeen), possibly because of her hard past, so she adores dolls in the manner of a little girl.
One day she meets this older man in an antique store. He loves dolls, she loves dolls; it's a match made in heaven, therefore they get married. However, married life isn't at all what Marie anticipated, as he rarely gives her attention and neglects her for days at a time. He treats her like a doll and hardly even loves her as a real person, and so the marriage grows stale.
Very unhappy, Marie seeks attention from other adults (such as this older woman and a male gardener), but their affection isn't what she wanted either, as it seemed they took advantage of her sexually - especially the gardener, who raped her. As she escapes from him, she hits her head hard and becomes unconscious, alone and cold for the whole night. After that, I had no idea, as it was all a bit vague to someone just learning French like me.

Again, Jeanne Goupil has outdone herself in the role of Marie. Her sweet, traditionally feminine and mild personality comes as a shock here, as in her other films she is a devil in frilly dresses! She’s so youthful and fresh-faced in all her performances, with lovely tanned skin and dark hair - not to mention a stunning smile! Her voice is so sweet and sugared here as well. Indeed, she makes a perfect Lolita in this film!

Although Lolita fashion prides itself on being modest and innocent -  as well as far away from the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in sensibilities - this movie is full to the brim of Lolita-styled clothes and ideas about dolls, so I think it would be great to experience some Lolita filmography. Perhaps some French-speaking Lolitas would like to see this film, even just for the clothes.

Of course, my review isn't in as much detail as I would have liked, simply because I couldn't follow the dialogue. For a more in-depth review into the darkness of this film, as well as some more pictures, follow these links.