School for Love (French title: Futures Vedettes) is a 1955 French melodrama film directed by Marc Allégret.
The story is set at a conservatory in Vienna and concerns two students, Sophie Dimater (Brigitte Bardot) and Elis Petersen (Isabelle Pia), who become romantically involved with their singing teacher, Eric Walter (Jean Marais).
Tropes:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Eric pats Elis' head while praising her. She then touches her hair, relishing the gesture.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Upon hearing a rumor that Eric is divorcing because he beat his wife with a belt, the students who are crushing on him just swoon over him harder ("What a man!").
- Bathing Beauty: Eric is aroused by the sight of Sophie bathing in his fish pond.
- Career-Ending Injury: Eric's wife Marie Koukawska is an opera star whose career grinds to a halt when she learns she has tuberculosis. Even with treatment, her voice will never be the same again. Her grief at this is what causes Eric to break off with Sophie and go back to her.
- Hot Teacher: Singing teacher Eric is the object of desire of much of the female student body at the academy (and it's suggested that some of the boys are attracted to him too).
- Interrupted Suicide: Elis plans on killing herself with poison at Sophie's performance after learning Eric went back to his wife. However, Clement stops her and talks her out of it.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Sophie is the most successful in her pursuit of her teacher Eric and has a brief relationship with him, but he ultimately leaves her for his ailing wife.
