La Fiancée du pirate

This erotic dramedy is the debut feature of Argentinian director Nelly Kaplan, who worked in France. An exuberant, witty (and also somewhat bitter) story about an exploited woman who, when pushed to the extreme, stops being a victim and turns into a businesswoman who not only charges a high price for her services but also comes up with a spectacular plan for revenge. After her mother is tragically killed (along with her beloved black goat, known to be in league with witches), the impoverished Marie (Bernadette Lafont) declares war on the entire village. Having been sexually abused for years, she takes control of her body and her wallet, which induces moral indignation (She’s selling herself? What a whore!). But clever Marie soon exposes the hypocrisy of the village mayor, a local landowner, the shopkeeper and the vicar. A Very Curious Girl, which premiered at the Venice Festival, is a perfect satire on the double standards of morality and on patriarchy when coupled with capitalism. This provocative tale of emancipation is also one of the few erotic films of the era made by a woman. “Impertinence raised to the rank of art” was how the director’s friend, Pablo Picasso, described it, adding that he saw in it the “atmosphere of the best works of Luis Buñuel.” (New Horizons International Film Festival)