The Year of the Jellyfish

Where but on the French Riviera could the concept of mother-daughter toplessness be greeted with such heavenly nonchalance? This film by director Christopher Frank is about a beautiful, voluptuous teen-ager and mother who vacation together in an atmosphere of utterly casual exhibitionism. The beach is glamorous, the clientele well heeled, and no one spends a nickel on swimwear. So the women are forever rolling things down or peeling things off, and the men never bat an eye. The movie focuses on the erotic rivalry between Chris (Valérie Kaprisky) and her mother Claude (Caroline Cellier). Claude is having an affair with the rakish and shrewd Romain (Bernard Giraudeau), who specializes in luring topless bathers to his boat and then lending them to his friends. Chris develops a crush on Romain, but he is not interested in her. This infuriates Chris who can't understand how any man could resist her young perfect body. She reacts by experimenting in a number of risqué affairs. (official distributor synopsis)