R Clayking I originally saw this film in 1968 at a pre-release press screening. It was in (apparently dubbed) French with English subtitles. I found the film charming, with a wonderful music score by Georges Auric. I subsequently saw the film at a local theater - in (apparently dubbed) English. The film had been cut with much of the lengthy erotic scenes trimmed. The dubbed dialogue was not only delivered poorly, but the banality of it was taxing. The French language version with subtitles lent a poetic effect to the film, although if I understood French perhaps it would have sounded as banal as the English.

Nazi_Fighter_David It was a serious attempt to show the developing sexuality of two schoolgirls and did not try to exploit its fact… Even by today's standards, the film is interesting and provocative… Therese and Isabelle are both attending the same girl's school… Therese is energetic, intelligent, and becomes a mentor for the innocent, naive, sweet Isabelle… She guides her through a number of exotic experiences, including a trip through an exclusive brothel, into her first lesbian liaison, and indirectly into her first heterosexual experience… The film does not exploit any sex, nor is there an abundance of nudity... The imagery is effective, but sometimes the camera lingers too long, and the story goes slowly… The director, Radley Metzger, went on to make a number of explicit erotic films under the name of Henry Paris… He always has extremely detailed stories, good acting, and very high standards of cinematography...Artistically, however, this is perhaps his most complete… His later attempts supplied for entertainment, whereas "Therese and Isabelle" was a study into the nature of youthful eroticism...

noirmoon This is a film.., not porn.This is a wonderful film!!! Full of tender moments and memories!! A beautiful piece of work!!! Excellent!!! For intelligent, viewers only!!!If you are a film lover. A romantic. A person who has loved deeply, this is your film!!!!It has a beautiful surreal quality. Fine acting and directing. Watching this film made me remember my first love.Thi is a film for those who want to reflect on life, love and the meaning of loss.Highly recommended for all film lovers.

lazarillo It's kind of interesting reading some of the negative raps on this movie. Yes, it is in black and white--so is "Citizen Kane" and any number of other classic movies. The girls are a little long in the tooth to be schoolgirls and the nude scenes are pretty tame (but there certainly are some in the unedited version). However, considering that hot lesbian action between actual schoolgirls is a no-no even today in most countries, it's not surprising they didn't try to pull it off in 1968. Besides, it was necessary that at least one of the actresses be older as she had to play the same character as both a schoolgirl and a middle-aged woman.I'm sure this movie is not exactly like the book (few movies are), but I was impressed at how it managed to combine memorable passages from the book with discreet and tasteful visuals to create some truly startling scenes. (And this is no mean feat--witness Adrian Lyne's ham-handed attempts at this in his recent adaptation of the literary classic "Lolita").This movie also deals with a lot of themes that were pretty taboo at the time--pre-marital sex, lesbianism, female masturbation--in a tasteful, non-exploitative way, which many people probably won't appreciate today living in the age of Howard Stern. This movie certainly inspired a lot of later movies-- "Don't Deliver Us from Evil", "Heavenly Creatures", and the more recent "Lost and Delirious". It's less melodramatic than any of these--nobody commits suicide or is brutally murdered-- but then again most real-life adolescent lesbian relationships don't end in murder or suicide. If you're a Howard Stern fan you probably will be bored with this, but if you don't object to subtle, classy European art films this is pretty alright.