I haven't read the Flaubert book in which this movie was is based on but i believe this will not affect my judgement since it was made by Alexandre Astruc, one of the critics in the now famous cahier du cinema, and therefore a supporter of the whole autheurism thing.
Anyway, i was kind of surprised to see how banal and frankly boring this one was. There is a general distrust towards the bourgeoisie to be seen in this, but it is made in such a romantic way that it loses all of its potential edge. Actually the whole film is quite romantic. We have the undecided woman that needs to be saved from her oppressive life and husband ( actually all women in this one fit into some pre established archetype of women, so we have the woman who does not know what she wants that i have mentioned above, we have the clingy and needy model who needs anyone who treat her mildly seriously,etc.), we have the good young, sensitive man that is dying to do it for her. Jean Claude Brialy is portrayed essentially as a knight in shining armor ( except for the fact that he slaps women across the face).
In summary, the plot is not that well transcribed into the post modern world, the characters come out a bit shallow and the conflicts, to me at least, seem very easy to solve. Also, the beginning of the film is really confusing, there are a ton of characters and we never really get a proper introduction to a large portion of them. Also also whatever happened to Barbara? she just sort of disappeared halfway through. I would've liked to see more of her.
I know that nouvelle vague is far from a homogeneous movement, but still, this one stands out a lot and to me looks a lot like what Truffaut used to call "cinéma de papa"
Review of Éducation sentimentale
