Olivia

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Olivia

1951

1h 36m

Drama

LGBTQ+

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

100%

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11 Reviews

86%

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

A girl falls in love with her finishing school headmistress, who feels the same but tries to suppress her desires.

Drew Gregory

Autostraddle

Sep 10, 2021

Olivia is one of the best lesbian films of all time.

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

Aug 29, 2019

It brings to rich emotional life the swirl of influence and passion inside an all-girls boarding school buzzing with sentimental education around its grand central staircase.

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John DeFore

The Hollywood Reporter

Aug 15, 2019

Feuillere holds the screen in all kinds of ways, conveying the psychology of a woman who understands the effect she has on impressionable girls and wants to wield it for their betterment.

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Amelie Lasker

FF2 Media

Dec 28, 2020

Olivia is a particularly beautiful watch. Within lavish costumes, bedrooms, and ballrooms, the story is surprisingly intimate.

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Lauren Humphries-Brooks

Citizen Dame

Jun 4, 2020

It's a study in female relationships, their complexity, and the centralizing of female desire, couched in the form of a complex gothic melodrama that prizes women above all else.

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Nathanael Hood

Unseen Films

Jun 3, 2020

6/10

Audry's approach [in this film] was primarily mannered-nearly suffocatingly so-occasionally bordering on the naturalistic.

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Vitor O

@RT19027067 Mar 16, 2025

A provocative and very well made movie, one that Hollywood wouldn't dare to produce at that time.

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s r

@ScottR Oct 11, 2020

Studying the complexities of female relationships in a girl's school. A nice piece of French culture and drama. It was well made. It has since been embraced by lesbian movement in its depictions of women and male patriarchy. Saw it on TCM.

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Aug 24, 2020

It's an age-old story of a student with a terrible crush on her teacher. Only this student is Olivia at an aristocratic female boarding school in France in the 19th Century and the headmistress is elegant, elusive, and ambivalent in returning Olivia's affection. Shot in luminescent black and white and suffused with female energy, insecurities, affections, affectations, and brilliance, it includes a lovely Christmas scene where ladies dressed as gentlemen dance with ladies. Johnny C. sez check out this daring movie for its time.

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juliette c

Aug 24, 2019

i loved the beautiful costumes, setting, and cinematography, as well as the subject matter and performances.

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Aug 21, 2019

Z Bm Until a. C. R.

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Jacqueline Audry

Director

Edwige Feuillère

Mlle. Julie

Simone Simon

Mlle. Cara

Yvonne de Bray

Victoire

Suzanne Dehelly

Mlle. Dubois

Danièle Delorme

Une ancienne élève

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Synopsis

A girl falls in love with her finishing school headmistress, who feels the same but tries to suppress her desires.

Director: Jacqueline Audry
Producer: Jacqueline Audry, Jean Paris
Screenwriter: Pierre Laroche
Production Co: Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: Canadian French
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Aug 16, 2019
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 2, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.3K
Runtime: 1h 36m

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