French-Canadian dramedy made in Quebec. IMDb calls it Blue Flower, a direct translation of the French title. Wikipedia says that The Apprentice is actually a better translation of “Fleur bleue,” which is an idiomatic expression.
It is one of the very few Canadian films that is functionally bilingual, shot in both English and French, with the appropriate dialogue dubbed for the appropriate audience. Fleur bleue is also one of the very few films to deal with the strain between Anglophone and Francophone relationships in the city of Montreal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time the film was made, Montreal was largely segregated into French speaking areas in the east, and English speaking areas in the west, with the two groups rarely interacting with each other. Jean-Pierre and Elizabeth both are from Montreal, but neither has a working command of the other’s language – Jean-Pierre’s English is non-fluent, and Elizabeth’s French is non-existent.
Summary:
Jean-Pierre (Fiset) is a working class young Francophone with big dreams. He comes under the tutelage of his older best friend, a con-man and bank robber named Dock (Jean-Pierre Cartier), who starts teaching him the secrets of his trades, and making him an accomplice in his crimes. He is dating Dock’s virginal sister, who is also active in the Quebec separatist movement.
To make ends meet, Jean-Pierre works a series of menial jobs. While doing clean-up on a commercial shoot, he meets Elizabeth (Sarandon), a beautiful Anglophone model. After he is fired from the shoot for explaining the English meaning of the French name of the product she is supposed to be selling, she starts going out with him out of a sense of guilt, and they soon become lovers. However, she is a sexual libertine with no intention of being monogamous, and this soon strains their relationship.
Eventually, the strain of keeping up with his two girlfriends wears on him and he decides to break up with Elizabeth. However, his clumsy attempts to break up in English (of which he does not have a fluent command) merely results in their spending the night together.
Susan Sarandon was about 24 when this obscure film was lensed. It was her second nude scene, following “Joe” (see the bottom of the page). This is the first time I have seen the film in such good quality.
It’s in a bed rather than a bathtub, but it’s rather similar to her scene in Joe.
Apparently she would only sleep with guys who had bad haircuts. We baby boomers saw a lot of the Three Stooges on TV when we were kids. She probably had a childhood crush on Moe Howard.