The Exploits of a Young Don Juan

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Exploits of a Young Don Juan (French: Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan, Italian: L'iniziazione, also known as What Every Frenchwoman Wants) is a 1986 French-Italian erotic coming of age film written and directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi. Possessing a unique blend of innocence and sexuality, the alarmingly pretty, almond-eyed Virginie Ledoyen has delivered performances every bit as striking as her good looks and has arguably become the preeminent French actress of her generation. Along the way she has drawn comparisons to the likes of Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, Isabelle Adjani and Sophie Marceau and seems poised to make her mark in English-language films as well. A model at the age of two, she began acting in commercials soon after and landed her first movie bit at age nine in "Les Exploits d'un jeune Don Juan/The Exploits of a Young Don Juan" (1987). She later starred as "Mima," the sweet child who sees the men who take her grandfather away to kill him in Philomene Esposito's attractive first feature, and played a teenager adopted by a bizarre Argentine expatriate (Marcello Mastroianni) in "Le Voleur d'enfants/The Children Thief" (both 1991). In setting and story, this film is fairly similar to David Hamilton's Tendres Cousines. In both films, we have the sexual awakening of a male teenager during the outbreak of WWI as the centre piece of the story. In both films, the viewer largely experiences the story through this boy. In both films, the outbreak of war is used to make women more 'available' to him, since the adult males are conscripted or volunteer for the army. In both films, he makes use of that - first cautiously, then with increased confidence and vigour. The film follows Roger (Fabrice Josso) a 16 year old who comes to his home for vacation after three years and finds its filled with many beautiful women. Rogers plans to loose his virginity and tries many efforts for it with out finding success. However during World War 1 when Germany declares war on French all the men are sent to the trenches leaving Roger the only man among the house full of beautiful Women.

The cast is quite talented with a lovely female contingent and the men are good at adding comic relief without trying to hog the spotlight. The male lead is pretty perfect casting. Young and appealing enough to make a believable young "Don Juan" rather than the usual aging Lothario.What Every Frenchwoman Wants (aka ‘ Exploits of a Young Don Juan‘, ‘ Les Exploits d’un Jeune Don Juan‘ and ‘L’iniziazione’) is a 1986 softcore coming of age erotica written and directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi. The movie is loosely based on Guillaume Apollinaire’s novel Les Exploits d’un jeune Don Juan. But while Mingozzi must have seen Tendres Cousines, his film is not a carbon-copy by any means. Hamilton's film closes with a romantic happy ending that just does not ring true and Mingozzi avoids this fault. Our Roger may be hormonally oversupplied, but the find-a-girl-to-settle-down hormone is nowhere to be seen. Keeping the plot bubbling along was also not one of Hamilton's strengths - he focuses on scenes and lighting, while 'Exploits...' is overall a more rounded picture. With no men around Roger gains confidence and fulfills his dream of loosing virginity. He soon impregnates the maids (Serena Grandi, Rosette), his aunt (Berangere Bonvoisin), sister (Alexandra Vandernoot) and many more. When he finds out some of them are pregnant he desperately tries to marry them off with other men avoiding further scandal. The movie sure has fair amount of female nudity but it isn’t too overboard and the theme of the film is light comedy making the film very successful. It is loosely based on the novel Les Exploits d'un jeune Don Juan by Guillaume Apollinaire. [2] [3] Plot [ edit ]