La petite sirène (1980) Poster

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I first saw this 20 yrs ago in my teens, thinking how lovely and tragic!
kirstymd21 April 2003
There really ought to be a word for the description of seeing a film twice - once when you are an adolescent, and then when you are an adult. Seriously.

Sexuality was especially difficult to deal with. Yes, I felt it, but I could never EVER admit it. And so movies (thank you CABLE) were my outlet for letting me know I was maybe normal.

I remember seeing "La Petite Sirene" in the early '80's and immediately identifying with the American heroine Laura, the ugly-duckling who actually goes after the mechanic who shows some interest in her.

FYI The sex scenes are very PG. And the ending is somewhat downbeat.

Still, this put me on the road to film as a major in college. so hey!
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9/10
A complex beautiful and tragic tale
aussiefilmlover3 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
For the longest time I thought this movie was dream. I remember seeing it as a teen but then I couldn't remember the name of it or who the actors were. I finally saw it again 15 years later and is amazing how well the story holds up but how differently I view it.

While the story is simplistic, the relationship between the leads is anything but and what on paper can seem like a clear moral line get blurred by the characters and the script. I can't imagine a movie like this about a relationship that does become sexual between a young teen and an adult being made in the US today or even back in 1980. I think one of the reasons it works so well is so much of it is from the perspective of the 14 year old girl and she is the one driving the action forward and pursuing the adult. It is am amazing film in that you have sympathy for both characters even when they are making horrible choices.
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10/10
A remarkable film That made me move
nestlerenrico28 January 2020
It was in 1993 when I watched this movie on a German channel at late night. My girl-friend wanted to go to bed after 10 as we had to go to work next morning but I was n't tired yet. Thus I just let this film start with no idea of what will happen then but as the story developed I became so fascinated that I held my-body on the top of the sofa-chair standing with it's back-side to the TV I was laughing and at a certain moment I even screamed: Crazy! Because of the strange action between him and her. My girlfriend came into the living-room and asked" why I am making such noise in night-time? I just requested her to watch it with me but she was too tired: You should better come to bed now. No I can't. I must watch this movie till the end. The end was a little rough but also understandable in that impossible story.

The next day after work I told my girlfriend about it and she could relate to my fascination: Maybe you just like to experience the same? No!!! The film taught already that this is just a false dream that leads ultimately to a nightmare in that socially engineered society that we live in. These are two different worlds: of a teenager (dreams of fantasy) and an adult (adolt/adulled) that can not work out.

I wanted to get this video on VHS and a work-mate told me to make a request to the German movie data-base where the channels can borrow the videos from. But they couldn't give me a copy but sent me the producer details in Paris. Thus I went there at my France trip. At first I tried a videoteque in Nice but they had only the Disney cartoon. On Champs-Elysee I found the place of that company and asked for this movie but surprisingly they also couldn't help me with it. My French and their English wer'n't good enough either. Thus I gave up and until today I couldn't watch this film again as the streaming-sites seem to be fake.
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