Pomme Meffre

Le grain de sable

Pomme Meffre

Delphine Seyrig

Delphine Seyrig plays a middle-aged woman coping with an ungovernable present and holding out hopes of escaping to a more pleasant past. She leaves her current residence to retreat to her provincial French hometown. Here she dreams of locating and rekindling an old love. Seyrig is less inscrutable here than in her debut feature-film appearance Last Year in Marienbad (61), though the character is just as complex and difficult to please. Grain of Sand was released in France in 1983 as Le Grain de Sable.

Péché véniel... péché mortel...

Pomme Meffre

This French drama is definitely controversial as it chronicles the sexual awakening of an 11 year old girl at the hands of a 50-year old man. The film tries to present it in a positive, and beautiful way, alluding to the fact that the curious girl wanted it to happen. The viewer can decide whether or not the film is beautiful or whether it is a glossy excuse for pedophilia. It is set just after World War II. A man has discovered and read Celine's diary which is filled with sexual longing and sensuality. The child herself, only portrayed as a photograph, describes her relations with a recently widowed hairdresser. The film contains little formal dialog and mostly focuses upon the daily lives of the people involved. The setting of the seduction is shown, but not the seduction itself.