When Get Out Your Handkerchiefs played at the New York Film Festival audiences literally "clapped and hissed" — a succinct image of the polarized reception. American critics and journalists spent the festival arguing over what should have been the dominant scandal: was the film an act of daring French art cinema or an exploitation of both women and a minor? Texas Monthly's George Morris noted it was the most-discussed film at the festival, and expressed surprise that debate focused more on the allegedly sexist eroticization of Carole Laure than on the ethical implications of the relationship with a 13-year-old. Critics were divided: some, like David Denby, praised Blier's audacity and New Wave spirit, while others and publications such as People and Take One flagged the movie's treatment of Solange as reducing Laure to a permanent sex object. Despite the moral uproar, the film carried on to commercial success in the United States and ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards — a fact that only intensified ongoing discussions about artistic license, consent, and the limits of transgressive cinema in the late 1970s.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Festival Flames and Moral Outrage: How a Controversial French Oscar Winner Sparked Debate About Sex, Power and the Screen
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978) / 1970s
When Get Out Your Handkerchiefs played at the New York Film Festival audiences literally "clapped and hissed" — a succinct image of the polarized reception. American critics and journalists spent the festival arguing over what should have been the dominant scandal: was the film an act of daring French art cinema or an exploitation of both women and a minor? Texas Monthly's George Morris noted it was the most-discussed film at the festival, and expressed surprise that debate focused more on the allegedly sexist eroticization of Carole Laure than on the ethical implications of the relationship with a 13-year-old. Critics were divided: some, like David Denby, praised Blier's audacity and New Wave spirit, while others and publications such as People and Take One flagged the movie's treatment of Solange as reducing Laure to a permanent sex object. Despite the moral uproar, the film carried on to commercial success in the United States and ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards — a fact that only intensified ongoing discussions about artistic license, consent, and the limits of transgressive cinema in the late 1970s.
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