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Therese and Isabelle (U.S./German Federal Republic, 1967)

Therese and Isabelle (1967)
June 6, 2011 - 7:30 pm

Directed by Radler Metzger

Therese (Essy Persson) and Isabelle (Anna Gaël) bond while roommates at an ivy-covered private girl’s school over their absent fathers and Baudelaire’s “ardent words of surrender” before initiating a passionate, youthful affair that will resonate with one of them forever. Based on Violette Leduc’s autobiographical novel, director Radley Metzger’s by turns heady and melancholic classic unfolds in flashback as Therese, now an adult, revisits the school grounds where she discovered herself and the cruelty of the world faced with a different kind of love. Bright Lights Film Journal declared Metzger’s Therese and Isabelle “still probably the finest commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love.”

Producer: Radley Metzger. Based on the novel by Violette Leduc. Screenwriter: Jesse Vogel. Cinematographer: Hans Jura. Editor: Humphrey Wood. Cast: Essy Persson, Anna Gaël, Barbara Laage, Anne Vernon, Maurice Teynac.

35mm, b/w, 118 min.

Watch the film's trailer below: