Beau-père

Plot synopsis:
Rémi is a struggling pianist with a wife named Martine, a model who is getting too old to find desirable work, and a 14-year-old stepdaughter Marion. When Martine is killed in a car crash, Marion expresses her desire to stay with Rémi in their apartment, but is taken away by her father Charly, an alcoholic who dislikes Rémi. Marion comes back, much to her father's disapproval, and takes up babysitting to help make ends meet while Rémi gives piano lessons. Soon, Marion tells Rémi she is physically attracted to him, but he resists her advances because of her young age.
When Marion proves to be anemic, she is sent to the mountains with her father while Rémi loses his apartment and moves in with friends. A broken man, he meets with Marion and they have sex in a hotel. She comes back to live with him in a run-down and condemned house, and although he first resists any more sex, gradually gives in. While visiting, Marion's father at one point sees the two embrace. He asks them if they are having an affair, but when Rémi objects, Charly apologizes and leaves. Eventually Rémi takes interest in an older woman, Charlotte, who is also a more skilled piano player, while Marion also seeks out a substitute for him and moves back in with her father.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
I love films such as this..
I really love films such as Beau Pere.
When you read the description of the film (a man in his 30's has a love affair with his 14-yr.
old stepdaughter after his wife dies), you kinda think that it's going to be a study about some middle-aged pervert engaging in immoral acts of both incest and pedophilia and that in the end the movie will be some kind of moral tale about the evils of such behavior.But surprisingly, the film engages you, and paralyzes your initial judgements.
It pulls you into its world and somehow you become fascinated by the 14-year old girl and slowly begin to sympathize with the stepfather.
She has a matter-of-fact way of dealing with the world, in love, sex, relationships, etc..
As the movie progresses, she seems to have aged before your eyes, (though physically she remains 14).
I've often read that in the artistic tradition of the French, the concept of morality does not deal specifically with what is right and wrong, persay..
I wish Bertrand Blier would make more movies.
The subjects in his movies such as this and others made over 20 years ago (Les Valseuses, Get out you Handkerchiefs, Too Beautiful for you, etc..)  would shock people even by today's standards.
But because he gives so much humanity to his characters, these taboo subjects can be seen in a different slant...
I was up late watching HBO when this movie came on.
I love this movie as much today as I did at 14, which at that time I did not know that he had just died.
With the advent of the Internet I was able to find out much more about this man who's performance haunted me and learned where that sadness came from..
Yes, I am aware of the fact the rather vulgar and tasteless subject line entirely misfits the overall tone of this film, but when else am I going to have the chance to use this clichéd saying in a review?
"Stepfather" is a provocative and mildly controversial "Lolita"-themed drama, but with a healthy sense of humor and extremely likable characters.
Britney Spears provided the best one-line plot description imaginable for this film: Not a Girl, Not yet a Woman.
After the sudden and accidental death of her mother, beautiful 14-year-old Marion insists on staying with her manic depressed stepfather instead of returning to her natural father.
The girl soon openly confesses Rémi she has romantic feelings for him and doesn't really make it a secret that she wants to sleep with him.
The narrative, for example, is ingenious as several characters (including Rémi) explain the story whilst facing the camera.
A truly ravishing and often barely dressed minor literally offers herself at this potent, thirty-something guy, and yet there are no explicit sex sequences or gratuitous insinuations being made.
Ariel Besse (16 at the time and a terrific actress) strips fully naked a couple of times, but all the sex & nudity sequences are elegantly presented and not the least bit offensive.
Patrick Dewaere is great as well and it was quite a shock to discover he committed suicide shortly after the release of this film.
The only consolation he had was that his own mental condition gave an even deeper dimension to his character in "Stepfather".
Yes, it's about a very taboo topic, to say the least - the sexual relationship between a 40-ish piano player and his 14-year-old stepdaughter - but the great Bertrand Blier, who explored similar territory in "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" eases the unease by doing the unthinkable and turning the movie into a screwball comedy.Well, that's what we think, at first.
Remi (played magnificently by Blier favorite Patrick Dewaere), not unlike Humbert in Nabokov's "Lolita" tells us of his tragic plight; after his wife dies tragically, he is left with his stepdaughter, Marion (Ariel Besse).
Uncomfortable with the new rift in the household, Marion childishly assumes the "mother" role and takes on all motherly duties - including seducing her stepfather.
Not realizing this danger, he eventually gives in.Of course, giving into his stepdaughter is a mistake that plunges both Remi and Marion deeper and deeper into misery.
Even Marion's real father suspects a mutual sexuality between them and, in one of the film's more heartbreaking moments, completely dissolves his obligation as a father and OKs the incestuous affair.
Remi and Marion, then, are not so much connected by their sexual bond, but by the fact that they've both been abandoned by the people they love.
There's no real question about where the affair is going, but the tragedy lies in who gets hurt the most.
The final image of the movie may haunt me forever.The movie is obviously not for all tastes, but it should be said that the sex is never gratuitous.
In fact, it seems almost distracting when compared to what Blier really wants to get across - the divide between adolescence and adulthood and how seemingly frivolous sexual encounters can ruin lives forever.
And, like "Hankerchiefs", the movie somehow provides some truly funny moments.
"Beau-Père" is Bertrand Blier's masterpiece and a film that should be seen by all connaisseurs of intelligent, challenging cinema.
Separated from his stepdaughter, raised for eight years as his own, after the girl's mother dies in a car crash, a pianist begins to mistake his fatherly affection towards her for romantic love, which causes a problem since the girl feels the same way and is set on taking her mother's place in this controversial Bertrand Blier film.
The movie is actually far less sleazy than it might sound from the outset; there is relatively little in the way of nudity and lovemaking with the film instead focused on the mental dynamics between the pair, neither quite sure how properly express their strong feelings for one another.
Things seem to get even more interesting as the girl's birth father catches on to how intimate the pair have become since the mother's death, and yet the film's meandering second half does the material no justice.
There is so much build-up and tension leading up to the pair taking things too far that the film has trouble refocusing afterwards.
That said, the movie ends on a pitch perfect suggestive final note.
Blier additionally uses an interesting technique of having a handful of characters talk to the camera to provide narration, though the inconsistency of the narration is a tad jarring..
When a woman is killed in a car wreck, she leaves behind a husband and a daughter by an exhusband who become the center of gravity of the film.
As the step father and beautiful 14 year old nymphet share their grief under the same roof, the girl reveals an uncommon maturity as she insinuates herself into the step father's life by taking on her mother's responsibilities and demanding her place in his bed.
What follows is an unemotional, matter of fact, tastefully presented tale of two people whose familial love morphs into something more as they grapple with all the issues which come with their extraordinary and taboo relationship.
Not "Lolita" and not a film about pedophilia or seduction, this flick should be an interesting watch for anyone into films about atypical romantic relationships.
A gorgeously photographed and steamy tale of forbidden passion.Boasting a superb lead performance by Patrick DeWaere as a young Frenchman battling to stifle the seductive advances of his breathtakingly beautiful step-daughter, it is grounded by fascinating character detail and an intelligent, focused script that is deeply interested in the complexities of love and desire.Ariel Besse is the step-daughter and she is a bubbling, nubile cauldron of curiosity and mischief.Sacha Vierny's moody photography is worthy of a coffee table hardcover and Philip Sarde's score is perfection.A delicious, provocative, mature tale of sexual politics..
Blier is not my favorite French director.
Too much irony and too much Godard-a-like in his films.
It's written with great intelligence and, like in most of the French Cinema, it had a wonderful sense of reality.
The subject is touchy : a man falls in love with a young teenager (14 years old).
The young girl looks realistic, and so is her feelings.
A superior work that takes itself seriously, but avoids the tiresome moralizing so often accompnaying American films of the same subject matter.
There is no doubt Ariel Besse is a pretty woman.
I should say "girl,"  because she's supposed to be a 14-year-old in here who is having an  affair with her 30- year-old stepfather.
With that for a theme, I'm  afraid this film is an allurement to perverts looking for some cheap  thrills.
Fortunately, it doesn't play as sleazy as it sounds and there  is no actual sex shown.
However, I still couldn't help but feel  uncomfortable watching this, especially since Besse was about that age  when she made the film and appears bare-breasted several times.
Allowing their 15-year old daughter to be nude and passionately kissing  an older man in a movie like this is a sad comment about Besse's  parents.
Anyway, looking at this strictly from a film standpoint, it was a  well-made movie, which was photographed decently, too.
The French do  make nice-looking movies, and it's not a boring story despite an  abundance of nothing but talk.
It's a decent story but......but this  whole thing is wrong so I can't recommend this film..
Patrick Dewaere was a wonderful comic actor (see him in Les Valseuses), while Ariel Besse was rather, er, young.
I'd have liked this film even better if I hadn't had to endure the horrible dubbing into English (especially for Ariel Besse's character)..
This film is not erotic.
It had to be made by 10-year-olds.
Spot on, a twisted love story.
Beau Pere is a film that works on a variety of levels- comedy, drama, tragedy, romance.
Unsurprisingly, as a story about a 30-year-old man who has an affair with his 14-year-old stepdaughter- played by an underage actress with nude scenes- Beau Pere has been derided in North America as exploitation.
A deeper look of the film suggests the reverse.
The stepfather Remi and stepdaughter Marion are both sick people.
Remi is faced with blow after blow, a struggling career, threatened poverty, a failing marriage, death of a loved one, loss of a home.
Marion gets an appalling shock when her mother is killed in a car crash.
The relationship may be sick, the love may be twisted, but these characters are always sympathetic.
Remi knows the affair is wrong and in the end tries to move towards an adult woman, but the shift to normalcy may be gradual, and there is a sinister hint that history can repeat itself.Both of the main characters are portrayed well (Dewaere has sad eyes) and the film doesn't have many flaws apart from the car accident scene in the beginning which is a little too goofy.
The movie has a lot of similarities to Lolita, but enough differences to make it worthwhile.
In fact, I prefer it to Kubrick's film (and I'm a Kubrick fan).
Beau Pere worked with me as a sorrowful drama the first time I watched it, and on second viewing I could appreciate how funny it is as well.
I don't think that "Beau Pere" (1981) by Bertrand Blier is so much about what Marion says: "I am a woman.
A woman of 14 years (...).
One should not let oneself cheat about how much this is a movie about the definition or role of morality in French society, either.
Therefore, I see in the center of this movie rather the poor Stepfather, Rémy, whose eternal faith it seems to be to never overcome his status as a stepfather.
While her real father answers by yes, Rémy says: I am rather her mother.
Marion wishes children from Rémy for the future telling him explicitly that he should transcend one day his role of stepfather.
But before he gets there, he jumps off their relationship in order to join Charlotte, a single mother of a little daughter (whose stepfather he soon will become, since Charlotte says to him: Tu Vas Guérir (you will be healed)).
At that point at the end of the movie, it can be no doubt that Rémy will never become a real father but always remain in the substitutive function: Not a father, but a stepfather, not the original lover, but a step-lover, not with the mother of his child, but with the mother of his stepchild..
I just happen to own the VHS version of this film.
Quite sad, actually) and Sikel and Ebert's review of this.The well-older guy falling in love with his 14 year old step-daughter theme began as a very disturbing theme to me before watching this.
So...why did I view this film?
In watching, the film didn't go where I thought it would.
This film does take into account many sensibilities, and the unveiling of feelings that are quite into the "You can't help who you fall in love with" bit.
Is it the young step daughter?
That's what makes it adult-oriented, it's the subject matter, and trying to address the subject matter and not necessarily (potential) sexual encounters.This is an adult oriented themed foreign film somewhat playing on the 'Lolita' theme, but with more of a twist.
Hits everything, makes you wonder and provides a story...maybe not one for everyone, but one that has many sides and allows you to be the judge of it..
Pathetically Weak Man. The Patrick Dewaere character is so spineless, shallow and pathetic, that it hard to engage much sympathy for the awkwardness of his position.His wife, Martine, was clearly the dominant member of the original relationship, and Remy seemed no more than a parasite as far as contributing to support the family.Spoiler Warning!
After Martine's death, it seemed clear that Remy lacked the strength of character to step up to the responsibilities thrust upon him to provide for and nurture the step-daughter in a positive manner.His allowing himself to be seduced by the step daughter was so predictable because he was portrayed as such a weak cipher of man.
In every way, Ariel Besse's Marion is portrayed as both the stronger willed, and more mature character.Remy even gives up his career in a cowardly way when he latches on to a newer lover, who also is a superior talent as a pianist.The way his character, Remy, is portrayed, one feels relieved when Marion discards him...it would be impossible for her not to be able to be able to improve on the spineless clod.
So she invites the parasite into her life, much to this viewer's horror, and the cycle begins again, as a new step-daughter eavesdrops on the sound of her mother's "passion" for this unworthy man..
Music as Sex. Spoilers herein.Nabokov's "Lolita" is a milestone in literature -- the narrator is obsessed to the point where anything he says is at least synthesized out of that obsession and at worse fabricated.
It is only about sex in so far as giving a focus to the obsession of being.Here we have a very clever converse.
Yes we have the stepdaughter, the "artistic" stepfather widowed by a car wreck and the copulation between the two.
Performance permeates.The difference between that message in the book and this film mirrors the difference between the perspective of the two.
Here it comes immediately after and is.The story this time is from the girl's perspective.
Just this depth of understanding of such a radical experiment in narrative colors this film as something worth watching.
(The designated watcher in this version is the redheaded wife of a fellow musician.)But otherwise, the film is a pedestrian affair.
In other words, it carries all the baggage of a normal French film.
It is bereft of, say, the lepidopteran -- or similar -- metaphors, the constant shifts in narrative layers (by this time, 1981, by no means experimental) and the references outside the film.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching..
An Interesting Story, Which Should Remain Just That.
"Beau Pere" was banned in Ontario when it first came out (the ban has since been lifted).In Canada, the age of consent is 14 years for both men and women, and sex between a step-father and step-daughter is not considered incest.
Remi would be in trouble for the fact that his step-daughter is only 15.
A step-brother and step-sister can marry, so can two first cousins (now people of the same sex can marry), but not a step-parent and child.
I really don't think Canada is worse off for this.If you want smut, you should look somewhere else.
The plot ideas suggest smut, but this is a movie where the sex gets between the plot.
In smut, the plot gets between the sex.Children sometimes are sexually attracted to parents or step-parents, and parents to children, as in this movie.
Marion is the one attracted to Remi.
It looks like he thinks he is doing her a favour when he yields to her and has sex with her.
It seems to be a twisted way to love (more on that later).
It's the desire to be close which leads them to have sex.
Its' not really lust for Marion, just a desire to be close to Remi.
She wants someone to be close with her, including in the sexual way.
She turns down the chance to have sex with boys her age.Marion seems none the worse for her sexual experiences.
She breaks the relationship, and seems to be thinking that she should move on and moves in with her father, who she does not see in a sexual way.
I think in reality, a parent or step-parent who has sex with a child, even if it's the childs' idea, risks opening a door which should remain closed.
Relationships like this belong in the movies.Interestingly, at the end, Remys' possible future step-daughter sees him and her mother making love.