An exposé on the pressures of compulsory heterosexuality
This was the first lesbian movie I watched. Or at least the first attempt at watching one was a young adolescent (I never got through the whole film the first time). But giving it a second go some 10 years later was a really interesting surprise. I picked up on things I definitely wouldn't have then.The biggest qualm I have with the film is that the main character Marie is so boring, or at least extremely reserved and doesn't speak much, and I thought this made her very hard to connect to. Unfortunately the longing doe-eyed gazes into the distance don't make up for a lack of characterisation. There are many examples of good coming of age dramas with quiet protagonists but this one just doesn't give much for the audience to grab on to. I felt like there was so much more opportunity to get to know Marie, and in that sense, the other two main characters, Anne and Floriane seemed more like the protagonists in a way.
Aside from that what I most enjoyed and relished was the complexities of female sexuality that were explored, especially compulsory heterosexuality (otherwise known as comp-het). I have never seen a film do this before in such a subtle yet powerful way. In my reading of the film, both Marie and Floriane are lesbian, but cannot act upon it or even admit this to themselves, Floriane especially. The film perfectly captures the pressures of young female sexuality and how it intersects with queerness. The girls all appear to believe and take for granted that heterosexual, penetrative sex is obligatory and a rite of passage (and who wouldn't, since this is what society makes young girls internalise). The way the girls use sex or the lack of it to shame each other is true to life and the games that are played.
It's very painful to have to watch Floriane grapple with her desires in a homophobic or at least hetero-normative society where she maybe cannot be true to herself; she doesn't want to sleep with guys yet feels like she has to do it like a clinical a chore. The scene where Marie "takes Floriane's virginity" really speaks to how much the notion of virginity is taken as a gospel truth and the lack of education for young people about sex and most fundamentally: pleasure. It was sad but understandable why she was so manipulative with not only the boys she showed interest in, but also Marie in public, while in private the two girls were able to be themselves. The scene where they are sitting on the steps looking over a lake was very poignant and Floriane telling Marie that she's very lucky not to have a story of unwanted sexual advances, women and non-binary people know this all too well.
I really loved Anne's character, her almost mad and compulsive drives to get a boy to like her felt true and sympathetic. I would have given the film a higher score, had it not been let down by the way Marie carried the the film. (Not related to the scoring, but I couldn't get out of my head how much Marie looked like Kalki Koechlin).
score /10
DoINeedT0 11 July 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5898057/35442
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