it in the lake, and immediately grow fearful of being caught. Police later find the motorist's abandoned car and suspect foul play. A detective arrives at the château to inquire if the motorist stopped there, but is suspicious when the girls behave nervously and refuse to tell them where their parents are. The girls in turn become convinced that the detective knows what they have done and plan a suicide pact, convinced they will go to Hell and be rewarded by Satan for their service. At a school recital, the girls read out loud a rather grim yet equally eloquent poem by Baudelaire. The nuns become increasingly suspicious as to what Anne and Lore are up to, since they have no idea what the girls are plotting, or of their secret suicide pact. However they are too late to interfere in what is unfolding, and everyone in the room is engrossed with the girls' performance. After reading the poem, while members in the audience start to both cheer and clap in applause, both girls cover their clothes with petrol and set themselves ablaze. The audience, including the girls' parents, panic and rush for the doors as the girls burn to death on stage. Cast Production The film's screenplay by writer-director Joël Séria was loosely based on the 1954 Parker–Hulme murder case in New Zealand, in which two adolescent girls—Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme—plotted and killed Parker's mother. Release The film was screened as part of the Directors Fortnight at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, It was submitted for approval by the British Board of Film Classification in December 1971 and received an X rating before being released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 7 January 1972. Despite significant cuts, the film was banned in its native France by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, who issued the statement: It also went unreleased theatrically in the United States. The film's controversy was utilized in its British marketing campaign, which advertised it as "The French film banned in France!" Critical response Patrick Gibbs of The Daily Telegraph addressed the film's controversial content, but added that, "artistically, it's beautifully done, with just the right touch of fantasy, and, as things go in the cinema these days, it's not only moral in conclusion but, I think, generally inoffensive." Critic Derek Malcolm praised the lead performances in the film, though he noted that its pacing "becomes