La femme enfant (1980)

Thirteen-year-old Élisabeth lives in an industrial suburb in northern France. Gifted at music, she plays the organ at the local church, while her parents are interested only in their hairdressing salon. For three years, Élisabeth has secretly been in a romantic relationship with Marcel, a 45-year-old man she visits every morning before school, cycling out of her way to his isolated house in the middle of the woods. Marcel is mute and, cut off from contact with other people, has become deeply attached to Élisabeth, for whom he feels a kind of adoration. A passionate, troubled and possessive relationship has developed between these two misunderstood people, with the balance of power not always on the same side. Although Marcel appears to be the stronger one, he is also terribly dependent on his young friend’s goodwill, and she can make him suffer cruelly at any moment—as on the day she misses the appointment at which he had planned to celebrate his birthday. By turns, Élisabeth is a submissive lover and a demanding mistress. And, like the Lorelei in the poem she recites in class, Élisabeth will be the femme fatale who leads Marcel to his ruin. Having won the young organists’ competition, she leaves to continue her studies at the conservatory in Lille, where she boards. Not daring to tell Marcel she is leaving, she leaves without a word. By chance, Marcel learns the terrible truth while eavesdropping on customers’ conversations in her parents’ hairdressing salon. Desperate, he slashes his throat with the barber’s razor—the one used to shave him.