FR 1950, D Jacqueline Audry, SC Colette Audry based on the novel Olivia by Dorothy Bussy, C Christian Matras, E Marguerite Beaugé, M Pierre Sancan, S Jo de Bretagne, P Jacqueline Audry, Jean Paris, Memnon Films, Cast Edwige Feuillère, Simone Simon, Marie-Claire Olivia, Yvonne deBray, Suzanne Dehelly, Print b/w, DCP from 35mm, 95 min, french. OV +engl. SUB, Les Films du Jeudi

A boarding school for young women in France: rectors Julie and Cara, apparently lovers, are engaged in friendly competition for their students’ favour. When the young English student Olivia is sent to live at the facility and subsequently falls in love with Julie, the flirtatious game escalates.

„If lesbians can be considered, of necessity, as well as by choice, the most independent of women, then Olivia is the film that demonstrates most strongly Audry’s preoccupation with women and their search for self-realisation. She is content to observe rather than to condone or criticise, though she is evidently sympathetic to the problems her characters face. The women who appear in this film are, for her, simply another part of society, albeit one which had usually been ignored, and one which has its own problems and rewards.“ (Elaine Burrows, Festival Publication Views of History, 2019)