We ask to go to bed

We Bid You to Bed (original title: Les petits matins) is a 1962 French feature film in black and white. It was directed by Jacqueline Audry. Agathe Aems was cast in the leading role. The screenplay was written by Stella Kersová and Pierre Laroche. The film had its world premiere in France on March 16, 1962. It was not released in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1965.

Storyline

The adventurous and charming by her naivety 18-year-old Annette from Belgium goes – equipped only with a camping bag – on a big trip. On the rainy North Sea beach, a rather pushy journalist has awakened in her the desire to get to know Paris and especially Nice by car hitchhiking. There is no difficulty in this for pretty young girls. More than a dozen men of all ages, different origins and looks, but with only slightly different intentions, are happy to take Annette part of the way, only to drop her off again just as quickly when her hopes are not fulfilled.

These hopes for a little adventure do not come out of the blue, however; rather, they are provoked by the immensely experienced and self-confident Annette, who tells everyone a little tall tale. Soon “adventure” is lined up with “adventure” and “victim” with “victim”. The scale ranges from the general manager to the actor to the boxer, from the teenager to the playboy to the bourgeois petty bourgeois, from the psychopath to the respectable baron. The journey ends happily, of course: the first man Annette really gives herself to loves her and will take her back to Belgium.^[1]

Criticism

The Encyclopedia of International Film concludes: “Teenage film, part frivolous farce, part sentimental love story, with a parade of well-known French actors in mini-roles.”^[2] The Evangelischer Film-Beobachter also rates the flick as mediocre at best: “Despite a star-studded cast, a non-committal, superficial film that is only refreshing and entertaining in places. Rated 18+.”^[1]

Web links

• We ask to bed in the Internet Movie Database (english)

Individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} Evangelischer Filmbeobachter, published by the then Evangelischer Presseverband München, review no. 182/1965.
2. ↑ Encyclopedia of International Film, rororo paperback no. 6322 (1988), p. 4329.