Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third.
06 Dec 36 Fillette (1988)
Evenings of Cabiria
In the late seventies, actress/writer Breillat made a film (“Young Girl”) about the nearly suicidal angst of female sexual discovery/fantasy. It is worth watching for the raw honesty, but it misses being a whole film. Five years later, she wrote a Fellini film, not a good one. It was during the period where he felt his only true film was “Nights of Cabiria”. And five years after that, she produced this synthesis of “Cabiria” and “YoungGirl”.
It is still not a complete film. Breillat is of the distinctly French school who thinks all the creative work of a film is in thinking it up, in finding that wrinkle in human emotions in which to ramble.
I recommend that you stick to the originals rather than spending time with this unsuccessful experiment.
Posted in 2003
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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