Olivia

Olivia

16/8/2019 1h 36m 6.6/10

Overview

"Olivia" captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress Julie and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Julie and the other head of the school Cara in its final months.

Director

Claude Pinoteau

Top Billed Cast

Suzanne Dehelly

Suzanne Dehelly

Mademoiselle Dubois

Simone Simon

Simone Simon

Mademoiselle Cara

Edwige Feuillère

Edwige Feuillère

Mademoiselle Julie

Marie-Claire Olivia

Marie-Claire Olivia

Olivia Dealey

Yvonne de Bray

Yvonne de Bray

Victoire

Marina de Berg

Marina de Berg

Mimi

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

1/7/2025

7/10

There are two pivotal women in this film, and it's not going to be easy for the young and impressionable "Olivia" (Marie-Claire Olivia) to decide in which camp to put her feet! She is an English lass who has arrived at a posh finishing school in France where she is welcomed by the school's charismatic and enigmatic "Miss Julie" (Edwige Feuillère) with whom she forms an instant attachment. Then there's the more cutely manipulative "Miss Cara" (Simone Simon) who has some sort undefined illness that sees half the school constantly pampering her and indulging her every need. She, too, is fascinated by their tutor and doesn't take at all kindly to the idea of this visiting, foreign, interloper... To put it mildly there's now an enjoyable frisson developing that has a very slight sexual change to it, too, as the women square up nicely in the most dignified and ladylike of fashions of course. Sure, there are some coming of age elements to the plot, but actually it's the rather subtly played games of jealousy that I liked here. There are few male characters to clutter up the toxicity of the dynamic of longing, yearning and back-stabbing and it proves that some clever writing and decent photography can convey tension and raw desire far more potently than nudity and profanity ever could. Ninety minutes flies by, and it's worth a watch.

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