Fat Girl

2001 Drama

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

Reviews

  • 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.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

  • An absolute stunner of a movie.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    19 January 2013

  • 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.

    Stephen Holden - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • Proves to be a remarkably lean and incisive film about the fateful power of sexuality.

    Joe Morgenstern - The Wall Street Journal

    19 January 2013

  • 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.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • 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)