Naissance des pieuvres (2007) - film review

One summer will forever change the lives of three 15-year-old girls.  Whilst watching a synchronised swimming event, Marie becomes obsessed with one of the swimmers, Floriane.  In spite of the fact that Floriane has the reputation of being the school slut, Marie cannot help being drawn to her.  The object of her desire is not unresponsive to these attentions, because she has begun to realise that girls interest her more than boys.  Marie’s best friend Anne resents the hold that Floriane has over Marie, particularly as she, an overgrown and unattractive adolescent, is unable to attract someone in the same way...

This debut feature from 27-year-old filmmaker Céline Sciamma won widespread acclaim when it premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2007 – hard to see why when all that the film offers is a pretty conventional coming of age drama of the kind that French cinema has been churning out over the past three decades.  Whilst the film has little new to say on the subject of adolescent sexual awakening, it is well-written and convincingly played by the three principal actresses, who, judging by their performances here, look destined for successful film careers.  Sciamma’s understated direction achieves a delicate sensitivity but also brings a feeling of vacuity that prevents it from being entirely satisfying.

The film’s overt portrayal of nascent sexual awareness amongst a group of teenage girls is unsettling, particularly for male spectators.  The three protagonists seem to think that sex is either a punishment or a tool to be used to harm and control others, and this suggests a degree of cynicism that is perhaps more informed by soap-style cliché than real-life experience.  The limp English language title Water Lilies is misleading, as it implies an innocence which the three principal characters clearly lack.  The original French title Naissance des pieuvres is more fitting, pieuvre being an octopus, an apt metaphor for the multi-faceted (or should that be multi-tentacled?) phenomenon that is female sexuality.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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