A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was the only directorial effort from Céline Sciamma that I haven’t seen so far, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, if her approach was usual really sober, the emotion going underneath all these girls turned out to be so intense, it was rather heartbreaking but also quite fascinating to behold. Indeed, all these young women were going through their sexual awakening and this process was hardly a picnic for any of them. Indeed, if they are attractive, they are basically constantly harassed by all men, younger, from the same age and way older than them and, if they are not traditionally attractive or are even downright ugly, well, they are completely ignored as if they didn’t exist at all. And, if they turn out to be gay like Marie, the situation becomes even more complicated and confusing. Hell, even the boys seem to be really confused but even though Sciamma’s focus on girls is always intriguing, she tends to really reduce the boys to some horny dogs whose only goal is to have sex as quickly as possible. Even if it might not be far from the truth, men are just as complicated as women are but that’s something Sciamma doesn’t care about at all. On the other hand, the vast majority of movies focus only on men and relegate women to either damsels in distress or to some rather passive love interests. Another interesting thing with this movie was the complete absence of parents. Sure, they are mentioned a few times but you never see them and they are certainly never involved but I think it does make sense. Indeed, around that age, you usually take your distance from your parents who are often reduced to nuisances who are only there to take care of the bills and the meals. Anyway, to conclude, even if I don’t think it was really a masterpiece, it was still a really solid directorial début and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.