Beau-père

Beau-père is a French comedy-drama from 1981, written and directed by Bertrand Blier and adapted from his own novel. It runs 123 minutes and is also filed under drama and romance. Known in English as Stepfather, in Germany as Ausgerechnet ihr Stiefvater and in Spain and Latin America as Tú me hiciste mujer, it takes on grief, loss and the contested nature of relationships between adults and teenagers, handling them in the drama-with-black-humour manner that marks Blier's work.

At its centre is Rémi, a pianist of thirty. When the mother of his stepdaughter Marion is killed in a car crash, the two are left alone together, and a relationship develops between Rémi and the fourteen-year-old girl. Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse and Maurice Ronet lead the cast, joined by Nicole Garcia, Macha Méril, Nathalie Baye, Geneviève Mnich, Maurice Risch, Maurice Biraud, Max Vialle and Michel Berto.

The film played at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, premiered in France on 16 September 1981 and then went into international release. Its audacious subject stirred debate, yet it was also praised for its sensitivity and the performances of its actors, and drew some favourable reviews.