17 filles (2011)
Directed by Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin

Film Review

Having exhibited some directorial flair with a number of short films, sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin make their feature debut with a scenario that is so incredible that it has to be a true story, and so it is.  In 2008, the town of Gloucester in Massachusetts, USA was scandalised by a pact involving seventeen teenage girls to get pregnant at the same time.  The story became a national and then international cause célèbre, and the reason for the girls' decision still has yet to be accounted for.  Was it a collective gesture of defiance against the world, a case of peer pressure at its most extreme, or just a bizarre form of group hysteria?  Transposing the story to the pretty Brittany town of Lorient, the Coulins preserve the mystery and leave us still guessing as to why a group of seemingly well-adjusted and reasonably intelligent teenage girls did what they did.

It is because the story it tells is so fantastic that 17 filles cannot escape having a comedic side to it.  Scenes such as the one depicting a swarm of girls entering a pharmacists and purchasing pregnancy test kits en masse with what little pocket money they have managed to scrape together cannot help appearing hilarious.  The lengths that some of the girls have to go to to put themselves in the family way veer towards outright farce.  The film could never have worked as a cold realist drama in the mould of the Dardennes brothers.  Instead, the Coulins opt for a warmer, sunnier approach which naturally allows the humour to bleed through the narrative.   The tone of the film does become darker in its second half as the precocious mums gradually come to terms with the consequences of their decision and face up to the responsibilities of motherhood.

The confident direction is supported by some luxuriant photography (Brittany has rarely looked this alluring on film) and admirable operformances.  Amidst the mixed ensemble of professional and non-professional actresses making up the titular seventeen there are some undoubted stars-in-the-making, including Louise Grinberg (revealed a few years previously in Laurent Cantet's Entre les murs), Esther Garrel (sister of auteur favourite Louis Garrel) and Roxane Duran.  The only let down is a script that makes no real attempt to get to grips with the motivation of the protagonists.  What promises to be an enlightening exploration of the teenage psyche ends up resembling a fairly shallow account of adolescent rebellion.   Despite the high calibre of the acting, none of the characters is sufficiently well developed for us to feel that we know them or can identify with them. For the most part we see them only as a group, from a distance, not as individuals with separate identities.  But then this may have been intentional.  The Coulins may have meant this to be a study not in individual choice but rather in the equally interesting phenomenon of group behaviour that is so strong amongst adolescents.  In any event, 17 filles is a striking debut feature crafted with skill and élan from a filmmaking duo who look set to go far in their profession.

Film Synopsis

In the small Brittany coastal town of Lorient, Camille, a 16-year-old school girl, is surprised when she discovers that she is pregnant.  She makes up her mind to keep the child and bring it up herself, a gesture of defiance which some of her friends decide to follow.  Within no time, seventeen girls of Camille's age are in the same predicament, all expectant mothers with no prospect of having a partner to support them.  Their teachers and parents are totally unable to comprehend this strangest of crazes.  All too soon, the girls wake up to the harsh realities of their decision...