Riptide aka Une Si Jolie Petite Plage

Pierre at his hotel room window

Seedy atmosphere is Riptide‘s USP. So seedy is it, in fact, that when Une Si Jolie Petite Plage (its original title) debuted in 1949 it was felt necessary to add a little disclaimer up front for French audiences in an attempt to head off complaints. The makers of the film meant no offence to war orphans, it says (in so many words), they are the victims here and do not deserve their bad reputation. Tiny data dump. War orphans lived in state-run orphanages and were often loaned out to local businesses, where they’d work for little or no money. Often horribly exploited, they did the dirty work, in every sense of the word. … Read more