Jeune fille by Anne Wiazemsky

Jeune fille by Anne Wiazemsky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the spring of 1965 the French director Robert Bresson asked a17 year old girl, Anne Wiazemsky, to be his leading lady in his next movie "Au Hasard Balthasar".
Forty years after her first cinematographic experience Anne is wondering if he wasever in love with her.
"Jeune Fille" is a book immensely exciting in its amazing simplicity with well portraited characters and a story as interesting as only life can write. It describes the addictive, possesive and controlling relationship between Anne and Bresson and how that changed her life for ever. Those two had a chemistry despite their age difference and they had intense feelings for each other, but it never stoped them from hearting each other at various points. Bresson had a power over Anne and although he was known for treating his actors in a possesive, authoritan way he did go over the edge with her. They were leaving in the same house, with adjoying bedrooms and he tried to control every part of her life in and out of the set and he did try to stop her from developping any king of relatioship with other members of the crew, keeping her a 'prisoner'. Anne felt strongly about Bresson and admired him deeply and strangely enough he was the reason that her sex life started. She took a lover, someone from the crew in a desperate attemp to regain a little control over her life and escape Bresson's control. Bresson grew so possessive over her that on finishing filming Au Hasard Balthasar asked her for the role of Guinivere in "Lancelot du Lac" on condition that she will never film with anyone other than him. Of course this never came to pass but its an excellent example of their relationship.
This is a book about a girl leaving her safe world and middle class family in order to enter the dazzling world of cinema and the adulthood under rather strange but also amazingly interesting circumstances. I remembered how it was when I was her age and I found myself thinking that I was ,at times, like her.

“I have been happy with you”, Anne told him.
“Me, too. Living near you has given me a great deal. . . your youth has made me young. . . Often I was your age. . . You will understand later on . . . later”
And, thus it is later Anne Wiazemsky will write one of the very best books I read this year. A pure wonder, simple but absolute. An excellent piece of literature.

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