{{short description|1960 film by Claude Chabrol}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox film | name = Les Bonnes Femmes | image = Les-bonnes-femmes.jpg
| caption = Film poster | director = Claude Chabrol | producer = {{ubl|Raymond Hakim|Robert Hakim}} | writer = {{ubl|Claude Chabrol|Paul Gégauff}} | starring = {{ubl|Bernadette Lafont|Clotilde Joano|Stéphane Audran|Lucile Saint-Simon}} | music = {{ubl|Pierre Jansen|Paul Misraki}} | cinematography = Henri Decaë | editing = {{ubl|Gisèle Chézeau|Jacques Gaillard}} | distributor = Pathé | released = {{Film date|1960}} | runtime = 100 minutes | country = France | language = French | budget = }}
'''''Les Bonnes Femmes''''' is a 1960 French nouvelle vague comedy drama film directed by Claude Chabrol. It follows four young Parisian women and their very different encounters with men. Though unsuccessful upon its initial release in France, it was subject to critical reevaluation, and is now regarded as one of the best of Chabrol's early films.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=World film directors: Volume Two 1945-1985|last=Wakeman|first=John|date=1988|publisher=H.W. Wilson|isbn=0824207637|location=New York|pages=196|oclc=923490031}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://chicagoreader.com/film/les-bonnes-femmes/ |title=Les bonnes femmes |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |date=9 September 1999 |website=The Chicago Reader |access-date=26 May 2023}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-feb-11-ca-63173-story.html|title='Bonnes Femmes' Remains a Sensitive Study|last=Thomas|first=Kevin|date=2000-02-11|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref>
==Plot== The film tells the story of four young Parisian women and their domestic and romantic encounters. Several of them work as saleswomen in an appliance store, one moonlights as an entertainer, and all are pursued by Parisian men both good and bad. Jane is pursued by men and portrayed as being more ditzy and happy go lucky. Ginette works during the night as an entertainer and reveals that she hates her day job with the other girls. Rita has a fiancé, but during dinner with his parents, one sees that he thinks very little of her as an intellectual and a person. Jacqueline is pursued through the film by a mysterious man on a motorcycle, and even turns down other men after developing feelings for him despite never meeting. However, after the two finally meet and proclaim their love for each other, the man murders Jacqueline in the forest and then flees on his motorcycle.
==Cast== * Bernadette Lafont — Jane * Clotilde Joano — Jacqueline * Stéphane Audran — Ginette * Lucile Saint-Simon — Rita * Mario David — Ernest Lapierre (the motorcyclist) * Pierre Bertin — Belin (the shop owner) * Ave Ninchi — Louise * Jean-Louis Maury — Marcel * Albert Dinan — Albert * Sacha Briquet — Henri * Claude Berri — André, Jane's boyfriend
==Release== The film was a commercial and critical failure in France,<ref name="indiewire">{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2011/09/the-essentials-the-films-of-claude-chabrol-116205/|title=The Essentials: The Films Of Claude Chabrol|last=The Playlist Staff|date=2011-09-22|website=IndieWire|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref> and wasn't shown in the United States until 1966, when it opened in New York City.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/05/13/archives/screen-les-bonnes-femmes-opensdreary-tale-well-told-in-new-wave.html|title=Screen: 'Les Bonnes Femmes' Opens: Dreary Tale Well Told in New Wave Movie|last=Alden|first=Robert|date=1966-05-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-09-23|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The Los Angeles premiere was not before 1976.<ref name=":1" />
==Reception== After the film's 1966 New York opening, Robert Alden of the ''New York Times'' found Chabrol's symbolism "overdone", but lauded the cinematography and performances, concluding that ''Les bonnes femmes'' was not a perfect, but "worthwhile" film which "deserves more recognition than it has had."<ref name=":3" />
In 1999, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the ''Chicago Reader'' titled ''Les bonnes femmes'' "the best as well as the most disturbing" of Chabrol's films so far, reading the film's murder scene as a precursor to the climactic scene in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's miniseries ''Berlin Alexanderplatz''.<ref name=":4" /> Upon the 2000 Los Angeles re-release, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reviewer saw "a sensitive study of character" and "one of his [Chabrol's] most individual—and most satisfying—works."<ref name=":1" />
In the UK, critic Geoff Andrew rated the film "an ironic, witty study of human foibles" which "remains emotionally affecting thanks to Chabrol's unsentimental compassion for his subjects."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/film/les-bonnes-femmes|title=Les Bonnes Femmes |website=Time Out |access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref> Writing in ''The Guardian'', David Thomson called it "one of Chabrol's best films, in which the four shopgirls he observes are all versions of the Emma Bovary dream. It's a great movie just because the people seem so ordinary and their lives so trivial."<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/16/claude-chabrol-david-thomson|title=David Thomson on Claude Chabrol|last=Thomson|first=David|date=2010-09-16|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-09-23|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
In their 2011 list of "essential" Chabrol films, ''Indiewire'' described ''Les bonnes femmes'' as "a simultaneously heartbreaking and chillingly dark piece," and added that "the cruel world he [Chabrol] depicts... is a man's world, and women are just passing time in it."<ref name="indiewire" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0053666}}
{{Claude Chabrol}} {{Paul Gégauff}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnes Femmes, Les}} Category:1960 films Category:1960 comedy-drama films Category:1960 romantic comedy films Category:1960s comedy mystery films Category:1960 French-language films Category:1960s satirical films Category:French comedy-drama films Category:French comedy mystery films Category:French romantic comedy films Category:French satirical films Category:Films directed by Claude Chabrol Category:Films with screenplays by Paul Gégauff Category:1960 French films Category:Films scored by Paul Misraki Category:Films scored by Pierre Jansen Category:French black-and-white films