Review #1,133 - Fat Girl (2001)
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Review #1,133 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Catherine Breillat
Cast: Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo
Plot: Elena is 15, beautiful and flirtatious. Her less confident sister, Anais, is 12, and constantly eats. On holiday, Elena meets a young Italian student who is determined to seduce her. Anais is forced to watch in silence, conspiring with the lovers, but harbouring jealousy and similar desires.
Genre: Drama
Awards: Won Manfred Salzgeber Award (Berlin). Won France Culture Award (Cannes).
Runtime: 86min
Rating: R21 for explicit nudity, strong sexuality and disturbing scenes.
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: MILD)
It’s
hard to find legitimate copies of Catherine Breillat films here in
Singapore. They are either banned or
have received the highest rating by the censorship board that restrict its
circulation. A Criterion Blu-ray copy of
Fat Girl came to me by virtue
of a very good friend. I’m not
particularly impressed by the film, but happy to finally see a Breillat
picture.
Fat
Girl comes after what is probably
Breillat’s most explicit and controversial film – Romance
(1999), a film that will never see the light of day
here. Starring Anais Reboux in her first
and only time acting for the big screen, in the title role no less, Fat
Girl is a frank and unflinching
portrayal of sexual curiosity through the eyes of female adolescents.
Reboux
plays the chubby but street-smart Anais, opposite her beautiful but naïve
screen sister Elena (Roxanne Mesquida).
Both siblings are on a holiday with their parents. The sisters have a love-hate relationship –
there’s jealousy, sympathy and lots of talk about guys and sex.
One
day, a young Italian student attempts to seduce Elena, at one point even
getting into bed with her. It is a quiet
night. Her parents are already dead
asleep. But Anais, in the same room with
Elena, is not. She pretends to sleep
while her sister is being coerced into sex.
This
occurs in what seems like one long take, almost twenty minutes in duration. Breillat’s camera shows us the long,
meandering I-want-you-want-not conversations between Elena and the guy. But when the big moment comes, Breillat
doesn’t afford us the money shot.
Instead, we see Anais' face as she eavesdrops on the lovemaking.
Fat
Girl may be about sex, but it is also about sexual attitudes. Elena desires and fears sex, putting emotion
and psychology into the mix. Her sister
sees losing her virginity as something best to quickly get out of the way, a
bothersome obstacle to overcome in pursuit of sex – a foreshadowing of what is
to come at the climax.
While
the third act feels like an exercise in tension building, where huge, phallic
trucks speed past the car the mother and daughters are in, nothing will prepare
you for the final five minutes. I would
like to think that it is as powerful, controversial, shocking and defiant as
anything Breillat has ever done.
Verdict: Frank and unflinching portrayal of sexual
curiosity through themes of sibling rivalry and female adolescence by the
provocateur Catherine Breillat.
GRADE: B- (7/10 or 3 stars)
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