Seven years in preparation, Saint-Cyr was a project that producer Denis Freyd earmarked for Patricia Mazuy, after having seen her first feature Peaux De Vaches (1989). Set at the end of the 17th century, it tells the story of two young girls from Normandy.

Anne de Grandcamp (Morgan More) and Lucie de Fontenelle (Nina Meurisse) arrive at the School of Saint-Cyr, created by Madame de Maintenon (Isabelle Huppert) to educate the daughters of nobility ruined by the recent war. Strongly supported by King Louis XIV (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), to whom she is secretly married, Madame de Maintenon runs her school as a playful and avant-garde training ground for the 250 young charges.

Inseparable friends, Anne and Lucie believe a happy future awaits them. When the Court visits Saint-Cyr to watch the girls perform a play by Racine, Madame de Maintenon realises that the men of the Court are admiring them a little too much. She feels she has failed in her task, succeeding only in having modelled junior courtesans in her own image. Horrified, Madame de Maintenon commits herself and "her girls" to a quest for purity. The regime becomes more punishing as a vow of silence is introduced, but rebellion is looming on the horizon.

"I remember having asked Denis at the outset if he preferred something in the style of Les Liaisons Dangereuses or Full Metal Jacket," recalls Mazuy. "The reference to the war film made sense to me, Saint-Cyr having been a training camp where Madame de Maintenon formed an army in her own image. And, like a fanatical general, she didn't hesitate in sacrificing her own soldiers."

Having cast Isabelle Huppert in the central role, Mazuy chose to surround her with young unknowns. "The simple presence of all these young girls and adolescents lent the film an uncontrollable element that I believe gives it the edge," she says.

Chris Darke