In a state correctional institute for teenage girls, Madame Appel, the superintendent, rules with an iron fist. The State appoints thirty-year-old Yvonne to evaluate the situation. The young woman is convinced that the girls should feel wanted rather than be constantly subdued and is accordingly determined to make Madame Appel change her methods of education.
Acting
Annie Ducaux's Yvonne radiates stubborn idealism against institutional rot.
Direction
Moguy stages power struggles through doorways and desk positioning.
Director
Léonide Moguy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on actual 1930s French debates about 'open education' for juvenile delinquents, this was propaganda for the Popular Front government's reform agenda.
Corinne Luchaire, who played Nelly, was a genuine Nazi collaborator whose career collapsed after Liberation; she died in 1950, making this her most watched surviving performance.
FR
