Les veuves de quinze ans is a dramatized examination of certain rites of passage amongst the members of Rouch's own tribe - Parisians. In this short film, Rouch follows two teenage girls from the 16th arrondissement (a very wealthy neighborhood) around Paris, his camera serving as witness as they experience several of their firsts. Over the course of the film, we watch two children slowly give way to the inevitability of becoming young women. Marie France, one of the young girls in question, ends up becoming fairly embittered and morose. Her discourse seems precociously out of place coming from a fifteen year old girl. The film is a subtle but caustic critique of the manner in which upper-middle class Parisians live.

back to filmography