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Girls Can't Swim (2002)
Synopsis: Even though they grew up in opposite parts of France, Gwen (Isild Le Besco) and Lise (Karen Alyx) are best friends and spend every summer vacation together on the Brittany coast where Gwen lives and Lise's family has a summer home. But this summer is different because Lise's family isn't going... Even though they grew up in opposite parts of France, Gwen (Isild Le Besco) and Lise (Karen Alyx) are best friends and spend every summer vacation together on the Brittany coast where Gwen lives and Lise's family has a summer home. But this summer is different because Lise's family isn't going on vacation for reasons that she won't explain to Gwen. Sick of her parents bickering about money and missing her bosom buddy, Gwen finds a boyfriend and mingles with some horny out-of-towners. Now fifteen, she's discovered that summer can be fun even if Lise isn't there. Then suddenly, Lise shows up at Gwen's house uninvited to stay for a couple of weeks. The following days are filled with unexpected surprises, causing the girls to reevaluate the importance of their friendship and the nature of their teenage anxieties. Anne-Sophie Birot's first feature delicately captures the intimacy and uncertainty between two teenage girls whose lives are teetering on the verge of adulthood. The performances by newcomers Isild Le Besco and Karen Alyx are impressive for the subtle shifts in mood they express between wanting to be independent of one another while still remaining inseparable. This film was screened as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2001 festival organized by The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Islid Le Besco, Karen Alyx, Pascale Bussieres, Pascal Elso, Marie Rivière
Screenwriter: Anne-Sophie Birot, Christophe Honoré
Producer: Philippe Jacquier
Composer: Ernest Chausson
Reviews
An overly melodramatic but somewhat insightful French coming-of-age film ...
The film's intimate camera work and searing performances pull us deep into the girls' confusion and pain as they struggle tragically to comprehend the chasm of knowledge that’s opened between them.
The heedless impetuousness of youth is on full, irritating display in [this] meandering and pointless French coming-of-age import from writer-director Anne-Sophie Birot.
Birot has succeeded in making a movie that has some laughs, low points and high ideals.
Until its final minutes this is a perceptive study of two families in crisis -- and of two girls whose friendship is severely tested by bad luck and their own immaturity.
I felt sad for Lise not so much because of what happens as because she was captured by this movie when she obviously belongs in something lighter and sunnier, by Rohmer, for example.
Despite its shortcomings, Girls Can't Swim represents an engaging and intimate first feature by a talented director to watch, and it's a worthy entry in the French coming-of-age genre.
For a long time the film succeeds with its dark, delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them.


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