Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
Ersbel Oraph
The French invented the film. And made the first films. Which were just a freak show display: boring short scenes demonstrating the new technique. It was a good policy because a 15 minute movie eats up far more film than a trigger happy photographer in the same amount of time. Once the Americans started doing business with the new tool the French had a hard time following. At the start of the 20th century they are into nationalism and cheap romance, but nothing like the Germans. After World War II they start building a glorious virtual history with easy comedy and some drama. Hollywood builds up large productions? They are going to do the same: make a list of stars and use the power of the state to impose quotas on the consumption of imported cultural goods. The New Wave was an attempt to make something. Well polished movies trying the realism mastered by the Italians some decades ago. But that was over in less than two decades. And even with the state restrictions imported movies are far more interesting even when dubbed.So in the 1990s some independent makers started exploiting shock. Sex. Unconventional. Abusive. Usually without consent. Finally 2000s brought the new step into pedophilia. Label it as art. Sell it to an audience of old males.This is a very slow movie about four youngsters. Sex. No family. No relation with the reality of the constricted Catholic society. While the French can spend their holidays with their parents well into their 40s, there is no adult here. Teens in this fairy tale seem to be able to sleep where they please. Some might argue this is some fairy tale so the reality has nothing to do with it. But even the characters are badly drawn. The chubby who is too scared to undress with the other girls at the pool where she trains is bold enough to enter the boys locker room. And deliver a message in front of everyone. And the young boys barely notice her.The relationships are also sketchy. Although it is very important for the final part, the relationship between the boy and the "cheerleader" is barely shown leaving big gaps.Bad script, bad acting, only a vehicle to deliver to a particular audience a scene of young girls masturbating.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch
billcr12
Teen dramas usually deal with the cruelty of boys; Water Lilies shows that girls can be equally vicious with each other. Fifteen year olds, Anne, the fat and lonely kid is always present, going back to the victim in Lord of the Flies, whose glasses are broken by the sadists he is trapped on an island with. Marie is the one searching for love, and seems to find it with Floriane, the blossoming beauty who looks like trouble from the start.The three first meet at a swimming pool and become involved with a synchronized swim team; thus the title, Water Lilies. The typical adolescent angst follows, with laughter and tears and fights. It is also the story of sexual awakening and discovery, in the typical laid back European fashion. The film could not have been made here in America, with its' uptight views on human sexuality. Nothing groundbreaking occurs, the three girls go through the routine troubles of high school students everywhere. The actresses are good and the script passable, for a rating of 6/10.
jerrystahl666
I sat down expecting Les cousins dangereux and got something else. If you are in it for the chance and some kinky stuff probably not for you (although there are some very odd sexual moments). The movie is driven by some rather bazaar ideas about sex which leads one to conclude that these girls are growing up in Puritan New England rather than 21st century France. I liked the movie because it was very weird and very different. It is one of those sub-titled movies where you forget you are reading the dialog because you get sucked in. I spent most of the movie trying to figure out if the girls were full of it or just being French.
jpblondeau
Not everything is said in this excellent first feature from Céline Sciamma. The friendship, the "wanting to fit in", the first sexual feelings... All this and much more is sublimated through the underwater synchro swimming scenes.All three girls in the movie try to find and express their personality in a very different way. It is a much less violent approach to the understanding of the teenage years compared to, say, "Thirteen", but a very worthwhile trip nonetheless.A must see, and please leave all American cinematographic preconceptions at he door. The soundtrack is A+ by the way.Bon cinéma !
