It stars Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse and Maurice Ronet and is about a 30-year-old pianist who has an affair with his 14-year-old stepdaughter after her mother dies in a car accident.

Marion comes back, much to her father's disapproval, and takes up babysitting to help make ends meet while Rémi gives piano lessons.

Author Rémi Fournier Lanzoni remarked on Blier's filmography generally taking the position of "a very conscientous [sic] observer of psychological conflicts".

[2] Critic Peter Cowie wrote it displayed exploration of "Blier's recurrent theme of a free, guiltless sexuality in which the men are finally found wanting".

[5] Writer and director Bertrand Blier declared Beau Pere was intended as "an ode to the fair sex and to womanhood in its purest form".

[18] It had a total of 1,197,816 admissions in France,[19] with Blier claiming the poster chosen by the distributor was awkward and discouraged the public from seeing the film.

[23] In Canada, the film was banned in the province of Ontario but approved for Quebec and British Columbia, and was a particularly controversial case concerning censorship and community standards.

Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader observes similarities to Lolita and says Beau Pere "has enough of Blier's customary taboo-busting vigor to provide a reasonably unsettling good time".

[10] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote in 1981 that despite the objectionable subject matter, "Mr. Blier tells this story very gently, with as much attention to the humor of the situation as to its eroticism".

[26] In his 2002 Movie & Video Guide, Leonard Maltin gives the film three and a half stars and calls it thoughtful and sensitive.

[1] James Berardinelli of ReelViews credits the film with a "provocative script featuring well-defined characters and a pair of powerful performances".

[30] Lanzoni highlighted Beau Pere and Série noire in noting Dewaere never received the César Award for Best Actor.