Summer in a new suburb outside Paris. Nothing to do but look at the ceiling. Marie, Anne and Floriane are 15. Their paths cross in the corridors at the local swimming pool, where love and desire make a sudden, dramatic appearance.
Director:
Céline Sciamma
Stars:
Pauline Acquart,
Louise Blachère,
Adèle Haenel
A girl with few real prospects joins a gang, reinventing herself and gaining a sense of self confidence in the process. However, she soon finds that this new life does not necessarily make her any happier.
Ludovic is a transgender girl who is coming out. She talks of marrying her neighbor's son and can not understand why everyone is so surprised about it. Her family and neighbors struggle ... See full summary »
Director:
Alain Berliner
Stars:
Georges Du Fresne,
Michèle Laroque,
Jean-Philippe Écoffey
Adele's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself and ultimately finds herself through love and loss.
Martín and Mariana are slightly damaged people who live in buildings just opposite one another. While they often don't notice each other, separation might be the very thing that brings them together.
Director:
Gustavo Taretto
Stars:
Javier Drolas,
Pilar López de Ayala,
Inés Efron
Johanna limits her visits in the apartment where live her mother and her sister Laura. Since the divorce of her parents, the family relationship clearly degraded After a tense weekend, ... See full summary »
A family moves into a new neighborhood, and a 10-year-old named Laure deliberately presents as a boy named Mikhael to the neighborhood children. It is heavily implied that Mikhael is a closeted transgender boy. This film follows his experiences with his newfound friends, his potential love interest, Lisa, his younger sister and his parents. It focuses in on the significance of gender identity in social interaction from an early age, the difficulties of being transgender and young, and how Mikhael navigates these in the background of childhood play and love. Written by
amisophe
Script written from April 2010. The main actress was found on the first day of casting. The film was shot in twenty days in August 2010 with a crew of fourteen. See more »
Goofs
After the fight over the attack on Jeanne - which Laure wins, we see Laure attentively dressing the graze on Jeanne's knee, and adding a blue-coloured sticking plaster (Band-Aid).
In the next scene, when (the un-named) mother finds out that Laure has been passing herself off as a boy, she demands that Laure wear a dress, when they both go to the neighbour to apologise.
Laure is sitting on the bed with Jeanne, but all traces of Jeanne's knee injury, and even the sticking plaster, have disappeared. See more »
Quotes
La mère de Lisa:
Lisa?
Lisa:
Yes?
La mère de Lisa:
Come here. This is Mikael's mum. She's come here to say Mikael is not actually Mikael but a girl, not a boy. She's waiting for you in the kitchen.
See more »
Soundtracks
Always
[reprise]
Written by Jean-Baptiste de Laubier and 'Jéröme Echenoz'
Published by Because Editions/Institubes Publishing/Copyright Control
I debated with myself for months before buying this film, but I love the film 'Ma Vie En Rose', about a little boy who wants to be a little girl, so I was curious to see how the story of a little girl who wants to be a little boy might be handled. I suppose therefore, maybe I bought this film as an academic companion piece to 'Ma Vie En Rose'.
In either case, the scenario had to be handled sensitively and proficiently by the actors and directors concerned, to avoid their efforts descending into puerile comedic farce. Fortunately, in both cases, this has not happened.
Celine Sciamma's debut as a Director, 'Water Lilies'', was an almost claustrophobically tense dance of adolescent first love, lust, and friendship. This piece, however, retains the freedom and breathtaking joyousness of childhood, without seeking to mask the truth for the sake of an adult's eyes.
Zoe Heran is perfectly cast as Laure, the ten year old girl who slips into the persona of Michael without a backward glance when she and her family move to a new neighbourhood. She is to be commended for her bravery in taking on this role, as it cannot be easy for a child to be told that they would do well playing the opposite sex. Casting Zoe Heran's real life friends in the film was a masterstroke, as their presence on screen gives the film a fly-on-the-wall feel that just helps to extend the naturally joyous feel of childhood to the viewer.
Inevitably, any serious film collector or fan thinking of buying this film may seek comparisons between Laure and characters such as Saga (Melinda Kinnaman) in 'My Life As A Dog. Don't. This film is very much in the neo-realist tradition of modern European cinema and, as such, the situation in which Laure finds herself is very naturalistic.
I should not have prevaricated over buying this film. Watch it, and enjoy your own childhood all over again!
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.
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I debated with myself for months before buying this film, but I love the film 'Ma Vie En Rose', about a little boy who wants to be a little girl, so I was curious to see how the story of a little girl who wants to be a little boy might be handled. I suppose therefore, maybe I bought this film as an academic companion piece to 'Ma Vie En Rose'.
In either case, the scenario had to be handled sensitively and proficiently by the actors and directors concerned, to avoid their efforts descending into puerile comedic farce. Fortunately, in both cases, this has not happened.
Celine Sciamma's debut as a Director, 'Water Lilies'', was an almost claustrophobically tense dance of adolescent first love, lust, and friendship. This piece, however, retains the freedom and breathtaking joyousness of childhood, without seeking to mask the truth for the sake of an adult's eyes.
Zoe Heran is perfectly cast as Laure, the ten year old girl who slips into the persona of Michael without a backward glance when she and her family move to a new neighbourhood. She is to be commended for her bravery in taking on this role, as it cannot be easy for a child to be told that they would do well playing the opposite sex. Casting Zoe Heran's real life friends in the film was a masterstroke, as their presence on screen gives the film a fly-on-the-wall feel that just helps to extend the naturally joyous feel of childhood to the viewer.
Inevitably, any serious film collector or fan thinking of buying this film may seek comparisons between Laure and characters such as Saga (Melinda Kinnaman) in 'My Life As A Dog. Don't. This film is very much in the neo-realist tradition of modern European cinema and, as such, the situation in which Laure finds herself is very naturalistic.
I should not have prevaricated over buying this film. Watch it, and enjoy your own childhood all over again!