Les Femmes is a 1969 French-Italian Sex Comedy film directed by Jean Aurel.
Jérôme (Maurice Ronet) is a celebrated author going through a creative crisis; women are the main subject of his books, but he's gotten fed up with them. His editor gets the idea of finding a woman who'll sleep with Jérôme without the pressures of a serious relationship. Enter Clara (Brigitte Bardot), who's hired as Jérôme's secretary and accompanies him on a trip to Italy, during which Jérôme tells her all about his relationships with various women.
Tropes:
- Commitment Issues: Jérôme is terrified of settling with a single woman. He wrote a book that intellectualizes his issues in an attempt to pass them off as a philosophy called "disponibilism"."I call 'disponibilism' the desire to keep one's future intact by never committing to a single person."
- Leg Focus: Clara is in a miniskirt for much of her screentime. There's this particular moment where Jérôme and his editor leer at her and it cuts to a shot of her legs.
- Not in My Contract: The first time Jérôme tries to sleep with Clara, she does not try to hide that she's not into it. When Jérôme protests her lack of enthusiasm, she says her contract never said she had to want him.
- Operation: Jealousy: Clara flirts around with a mustached man to provoke Jérôme. He gets so incensed that he chases her around the train and they have sex for the first time when he catches her.
- Public Exposure: Jérôme gets Hélène to lose her prudishness by forcing her to pose as a nude model in an art class.
- Sexy Secretary: Clara is hired by Jérôme's editor, officially as a secretary, but really so Jérôme can have a no-strings-attached sexual relationship with her. The editor does let Clara know exactly what will be expected of her before hiring her, so she knowingly takes the job. She also does legitimate secretary work such as typing out Jérôme's drafts.
- Writer's Block: Jérôme is a popular author who found success by writing about his failed relationships with women. At the start of the film, he's fed up with women and hasn't written a new book in years. Hiring Clara as his secretary is supposed to help get his creative juices flowing again.
