Fat Girl
Director Catherine Breillat, who courted international controversy with her film Romance, once again pushed the envelope with this disturbing (if somewhat less explicit) look at adolescent sexuality. Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) is a 12-year-old girl with a weight problem and a downbeat disposition growing up in a family which offers her little in the way of understanding and affection. Anaïs has a typically adolescent love/hate relationship with her slimmer and prettier 15-year-old sister, Elena (Roxane Mesquida); she's at once fascinated by her sister (and the boys who follow her around), and hates her for the love and attention she receives from others. While the family spends the summer at the beach, Elena attracts the attentions of Fernando (Libero de Rienzo), a college student from Italy who makes no secret of his attraction to Elena's budding sexuality. Anaïs, on the other hand, is forced to make do with a sad game in which she pretends that a ladder and a diving board at a neighborhood swimming pool are two suitors vying for her affections. Anaïs shares a room with Elena, and finds herself a fascinated, if troubled, witness as Fernando uses both charm and deceit to rob her sister of her virginity, while Elena is too naïve to see through the lies Fernando is spinning -- and enjoys having Anaïs as an audience for her steadily advancing sex play with Fernando. Anaïs is more aware than her older sister of Fernando's insincerity, but she finds Elena isn't eager to believe her. more..
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Anais Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, Arsinee Khanjian,Romain Goupil
With the pitiless, devastating Fat Girl, Catherine Breillat puts men and women, boys and girls on notice: When fantasy, hypocrisy, and manipulation mix in a wet, sandy place, you dive into sex at your own risk.
An absolute stunner of a movie.
Much more than a perfectly realized vignette about seduction. It is the latest and most powerful dispatch yet from Ms. Breillat, France's most impassioned correspondent covering the war between the sexes.
Proves to be a remarkably lean and incisive film about the fateful power of sexuality.
There is a jolting surprise in discovering that this film has free will, and can end as it wants, and that its director can make her point, however brutally.
Catherine Breillat
Berlin International Film Festival (2001)
French Cineaste of the Year
Cannes Film Festival (2001)
Best Film
Chicago International Film Festival (2001)
Best Foreign Language Film
Online Film Critics Society Awards (2002)
Catherine Breillat
Rotterdam International Film Festival (2002)
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