Armand du Plessy | La Garçonne / 1923 [Difficult to find /available in French only]

the boyish girl

by Douglas Messerli

 

Victor Margueritte (screenplay, based on his novel of 1922), Armand du Plessy (director) La Garçonne / 1923 [Difficult to find /available in French only]

 

This notorious one hour and 10-minute movie is extremely difficult to find today—and it does not exist in an English language version—since it was banned upon release by the French cinematographic control commission for, among other things, its “indecent touching” and “lewd dances.” What doesn’t get said, apparently, it that it also portrayed lesbian love and abuse of drugs.

      Since I was not able to see the film, I have to presume it was similar to the 1936 version in its plot, centered around a young French emancipated woman Monique Lerbier (France Dhelia), who has nonetheless accepted the arranged marriage made by her parents. But when she discovers that her future husband not only does not love her but is in a secret relationship with another woman, their marriage being simply one of convenience, she feels humiliated and escapes from both her parents and her fiancé, deciding to live an open and free life in which she is control.

      She soon becomes an independent woman, running an antique shop, but, after meeting up with a chanteuse, is seduced into a lesbian love affair. Gradually she begins to explore other affairs of the heart with both females and males, as well as smoking opium.

      Although both the book and film feature her as an early feminist, in the end she comes to see the error of her ways and leaves her previous life behind for a more traditional heterosexual relationship.

     The cast of the 1923 version included Suzanne Balco, Ninon Balzan, Renée Carl, José Davert, Pierre Delmonde, Maggy Delval, Delvigne, Georges Deneubourg, Marise Dorval, Espérance, Gaston Jacquet, Geo Leclecq, Victor Margueritte (the creator of this work), René Maupré and others.

     In an attempt to circumvent the censors, it was renamed Anne Corlac, but was still banned from export, and was refused by most cinema venues, although its very reputation made it quite famous.

     In 1926, even a theatrical adaptation with actress Renée Falconetti as the lead, caused an uproar among the religious right and conservative forces.

     It was certainly the most open and advanced statement about women and lesbianism of the decade, a film redone with similar controversy in 1936.

 

Los Angeles, May 20, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May 2023).