a sincere effort and great debut

tsimshotsui

Water Lilies is a sincere debut from Celine Sciamma. She is one of the most interesting filmmakers to me because she makes great choices on subject matters to deal with, and actually makes an effort to explore areas of humanity that may not be as easily accessible to her (which doesn't seem hard but if you could just see the number of respected filmmakers who just stick to their limited perspectives again and again...). Water Lilies is not an exception to this. It tells the story of Marie and Anne, best friends, one a little too small a frame for synchronized swimming, the other a little bit the opposite. Marie and her storyline takes most of the screen time, and while I loved every bit of it, I also wanted equal screen time and focus with Anne. Marie finds herself getting attracted to Floriane, played by Adèle Haenel who is really magnetic here. Anne is attracted to this boy, but of course body image issues and society make that harder. Her storyline, though too short for my liking, gets an amazing ending. Louise Blachère is great in the role.

score /10

tsimshotsui 17 May 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3709604/