Hitch-Hike (1962) Poster

(1962)

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6/10
Only a woman could direct it.
dbdumonteil23 July 2003
Jacqueline Audry is France's Ida Lupino:she was a director when women were only meant to be actresses,film editors or script girls.Her work begins to surface again,but really little by little.Some critics said that the laurels Agnès Varda won were actually Jacqueline Audry's .

She had only one subject: woman.But who could do it better than a woman? She was probably the first artist to cast a lesbian as a lead (in Jean-Paul Sartre's "huis clos",all the same!);just before "les petits matins" ,she made "le secret du chevalier d'Eon" which cast Andrée Debar as a woman dressed up as a man."Les petits matins" is a story of eighteen-year old Agathe with a firm independence of men even if she uses them to get to the côte d'azur.Along the way she meets a lot of people-because it's finally a road movie-,mostly men ,whom the director does not spare :the macho proud of their brand new car,the forty-something who wants to take Agathe home,the strange handsome guy (Robert Hossein)under his mother 's thumb -a spoof on Hitchcock's characters?-.This is very light stuff,nothing intellectual ,but often charming and there's a bevy of famous actors:Jean -Claude Brialy,Claude Rich,Lino Ventura,François Perrier,Pierre Brasseur,and the couple Bernard Blier/Arletty who team up for the first time since Marcel Carné's "Hôtel du Nord" (1938).Plus two singers ,the first of whom plays but does not sing (Gilbert Becaud who wrote "let it be me" and "what now my love?"),the second sings the title song but does not play.(Charles Aznavour)

Agathe Aems who plays the lead never made another movie before or since.
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9/10
Agathe on the highways and byways...
RogerTheMovieManiac8830 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Viewing this free-wheeling road movie from 1962 was a sheer delight. It was a revelation and many times more captivating than I had anticipated. Director Jacqueline Audry creates an episodic and lightweight yet, on the whole, charming concoction replete with a dazzling selection of some of France's greatest stars of the silver screen.

The plot, such as it is, follows eighteen-year-old Agathe (Agathe Aems) as she ventures south, harbouring the wish to eventually reach the glistening idyll of the Cote d'Azur. Young Agathe Aems really turns in a sparkling performance as the journeying ingenue who links the movie's threads. She proffers forth to the viewer a character who is single-minded, mischievous and manipulative yet, at the same time, full of the adventurous joy and vigour of youth. Though I am unfamiliar with her life off-screen, I find it frankly astonishing that Aems has not appeared in a movie since.

'Les Petits Matins' is, as I indicated, presented as a series of sketches. Agathe hops from car to lorry to motorcycle and carriage as she edges circuitously towards her dream destination in the sunny south. She encounters, along the way, a diverse array of quirky characters who span the breadth of human nature. An all-star supporting cast which includes Arletty, Pierre Brasseur, Noel-Noel and Robert Hossein appear as these often quirky characters who flesh out the somewhat thin premise. There is a gently satirical slant to a number of the segments as some of the stars send-up their typical on-screen personas to great effect.

I delighted in the witty dialogue of Pierre Laroche (Audry's husband) and Pierre Pelegri. The translation by Epilogue for the high-quality subtitles on TV5 Monde also added greatly to my enjoyment of the movie. However, this is not a movie of great importance. Rather, it is one that is immensely pleasing to watch and simply savour for its entertainment value. Along the route to her dreams, Agathe is naive and delicate, tender and insouciant. It is a performance of zest and freshness that lifted 'Les Petits Matins' into my heart.
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4/10
Not entirely bad!
RodrigAndrisan29 January 2024
All the actors, some big names, from this film are dead: Arletty, Gilbert Bécaud, Francis Blanche, Bernard Blier, Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy, Daniel Gélin, Fernand Gravey, Robert Hossein, Pierre Mondy, Noël-Noël, Andréa Parisy , François Périer, Claude Rich, Lino Ventura. Only the protagonist, Agathe Aëms, is still alive now in 2024, when I saw the film and am writing this review. She was only 16 years old in 1960 when the film was made, but she looks much more physically developed. She was not extremely talented, the proof, she only made one more film after this one, but she looked sexy, had an attractive face and an even more appetizing ass. I am convinced that this aspect was also the main reason why it was distributed. The film has no value, the only reason to see it would be the impressive name of stars present in the cast. And, despite the very short appearance on the screen, a few manage some interesting performances, especially Robert Hossein, Francis Blanche and Arletty.
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8/10
"At my age,the youth of others is my last resort."
morrison-dylan-fan2 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
After having read dbdumonteil's reviews about her for years,I was thrilled to finally explore the works of Jacqueline Audry. As the credits faded on Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon (1959-also reviewed) I got set to hitch-hike,on what is currently the last Audry with English subtitles.

View on the film:

Released the same year that her husband/regular collaborator Pierre Laroche passed away at just 59 years old, directing auteur Jacqueline Audry & The Gates of Paris (1957-also reviewed) cinematographer Robert Lefebvre drive into a major departure from the shine of Audry's Costume Drama works,with a large part of the movie clearly being filmed in real location, which Audry stylishly takes advantage of in gliding panning shots towards the care-free Agathe.

Presenting Agathe's criss-crossing riding encounters with men in an anthology manner, Audry charges up a jaunty, cheeky comedic atmosphere via darting push-in shots on the increasingly sleazy men, which Audry twists into glowing close-ups on the butter wouldn't melt in her mouth innocent Agathe.

On the last film by his wife before he passed away (Audry's Cadavres en vacances that he co-wrote,would come out in 1963) Pierre Laroche is joined by co-writers Stella Kersova and The Girl with the Golden Eyes (1961-also reviewed) co-scriptwriter Pierre Pelegri,for a screenplay which heightens Audry's major theme across her works of women's independence into a Road Movie of discovery.

The writers make the rather noticeable decision,that Agathe discovers that every single man she meets on her hitch-hike travels, is a sleazy chap who tries to make Agathe fulfill their lustful desires.

Never acting on film or TV again, Agathe Aems gives a charming turn as Agathe,thanks to blending naive innocence with enticing, sugary sweet flirting.

Turning Agathe's Road Movie into an exciting adventure, Audry packs the supporting cast of slimeball lads with an incredible selection of actors,with Noel-Noel, Pierre Brasseur, Robert Hossein, Daniel Gelin and Lino Ventura all hitting their cheeky punch-lines, as Agathe sets off to hitch-hike.
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8/10
A pleasant road movie.
zutterjp484 July 2023
Thank you to Stella Kersová , Pierre Laroche (Jacqueline Audry's husband), Pierre Pelegri and Jacqueline Audry for this pleasant road movie made in 1962 !

The tribulations of Agathe, a typist who has won a prize (a stay at La Panne) and encounters a beach under the rain:thanks to a the talkative journalist she realizes that she must go to the Côte d'Azur where she will find the sun: then begins her travel by hitchhiking through Belgium: a lot of pleasant and unpleasant encounters with very different men.

Agathe is at the same time ingenuous but also cute (she speaks of an imaginary aunt or boss who is waiting for her), she escapes from dubious situations (her 40 years old father or the psychopath) and follows her quest for the sea and the sun.

I enjoyed very much the performances of Darry Cowl, Pierre Mondy, Lino Venturo , Daniel Gélin, Robert Hossein, Pierre Brasseur, Fernand Gravey, François Périer, Gilbert Bécaud, Bernard Blier, Arletty,Michel Le Royer and Jean-Claude Brialy: their dialogues with te character of Agathe were full of humour and Agathe Aëms was brilliant.
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