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80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Passionate, believable, performances; no ending., September 29, 2002
This review is from: Girls Can't Swim (DVD)
I'm frequently impressed at how well French filmmakers capture the tumultuous emotions of adolescence. While most American films try for "popcorn pulp" treatments of teenage life - light, cliched situations played out by kids who seem to have been cast for how well they'd grace the cover of Seventeen or YM Magazines rather than for any acting talent - Girls Can't Swim (or Les Filles Ne Savent Pas Nager, as the French call it) offers serious explorations of the minds and passions of its two fifteen-year-old protagonists, played with intense passion and sincerity by its stars. The basic premise is nothing new: Gwen and Lise have grown up best of friends, and Lise and her family spend every summer vacation at the beach town where Gwen lives. But this summer, Gwen is less inclined to spend time with Lise as she is with the local boys, who are eager to take advantage in her newfound interest in sex. Lise, whose estranged father has recently died, begins replacing Gwen as favorite in the eyes of Gwen's unemployed father. And the intimate friendship they have treasured all their lives unravels with each new conflict. Visually, the movie is absolutely beautiful. The acting by the two stars is superb, and the characters they play are beautifully developed - fully believable adolescents. Isild Le Besco deftly captures the desperation behind Gwen's freewheeling and promiscuous experimentations with sex, and Karen Alyx infuses Lise with an almost dangerous, introverted fire, remeniscent of Melanie Lynskey in Heavenly Creatures. Many of the supporting roles were very well-played too, especially Sandrine Blancke as Lise's older sister Vivianne and Pascal Elso as Gwen's father Alain. And unlike the vast majority of cinema I've seen, this film makes a marked distinction between sex and nudity. Yes, the girls get naked from time to time; yet, with the exception of one important scene which functions as a major turning point in the story, nearly none of the nudity is involved in the sex. The love/hate duality of the relationships among the various characters within the film is honest and believable, and the "disfunctional"-ness of the two families (and their self-destructive attempts to escape from their own lives) is well-calculated. I can forgive all but one of the film's flaws (lack of any male characters even half as well-defined as the female ones, weak dialogue, lack of narrative coherence, etc.) on account of its strengths. But there is one I cannot forgive. At the climax of the story, a catastrophic event occurs that threatens to destroy the friendship permanently, and the film ends there. There is no aftermath, no resolution of any kind. It merely cuts off at the climax. The effect is tantamount to ending Empire Strikes Back the moment Darth Vader drops his famous bombshell about Luke Skywalker's true pedigree. All the more so because not only do you never find out what this does to the two girls and their futures, you never find out if the catastrophe that happened was purely an accident, as it seems on the surface, or if Lise had been planning it. It's one of those violations of dramatic structure that can't go by unnoticed or unobjected-to. I'd say rent before you buy it, and judge for yourself if the powerful performances it has going for it make it worth buying despite the fact it's missing its third act.
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42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
French movies, got to love them, July 22, 2003
This review is from: Girls Can't Swim (DVD)
I do own this film and I bought it after renting it for it's bizarre, unique plot that comes across as outright laughable sometimes. This is a coming of age film about two friends: a promiscuos teenager named Gwen who seems to wear the same pair of pants throughout the entire movie and her friend Lise. They visit each other every summer and throughout the rest of the year they carry on a close correspondence. Lise has just bought a new bathing suit and is planning her trip back when tragedy strikes and her father dies. The bathing suit, I think is supposed to symbolize her entrance into womanhood, but unfortunately this bathing suit is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Her and Gwen begin to realize they are very different. First of all, Gwen likes sex, really likes it. She is caught in "the act" at least twice. Lise is disappointed because of how things have changed and she begins to bond instead with Gwen's father, which causes an even bigger rift between them. The film ends on such a laughably bizarre note that I had to give it kudos, because I didn't think it could get any more absurd. If you buy this movie, it works as a coming of age film, even though it is a little melodramatic. Also, you need to take it with a grain of salt. I liked this movie because the plot was so stupid at times that I found it incredibly amusing. It is another one of those famous french movies, you know, with the 13-15 year old girl getting naked and demanding that a man, often twice her age, satisfy her. This film also does have some serious undertones, and if they had maybe just taken the melodrama down a couple of notches, the message would be a lot clearer.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An OK film, October 6, 2009
This review is from: Girls Can't Swim (DVD)
This is a film that I can't decide, did I hate it, or did I love it? Maybe it was just an OK film, nothing special, nothing horrible, mostly forgettable.
Girls Can't Swim is a coming of age film. Gwen is a flighty promiscuous girl. Her friend Lise is the level headed one, the serious one. The two families spent their summer vacation at the same town by the beach (ocean or Mediterranean, no matter). Except this year, Lise stays home, there are problems in Lise's family. The film is set before the era of the cell phone, internet, or the Euro; so the two girls write letters and call eachother occasionally on the phone. Gwen misses Lise, and in her egocentric way keeps trying to convince Lise to be with her. In the meantime, Gwen wastes no time experimenting with the local boys. There's a ton of odd dynamics with the parents. It's clear that Gwen has some deep feeling for Lise, but yet that's not the central point of the film. The film tries to display all the difficulties of two young women growing up, they act like children, then adults, and then children again.
The film has the feeling of a 1980's French film as opposed to the 2000's when it was shot. There aren't many clues that place the film in a particular year. I didn't find the scenery all that gorgeous, it was nice, but nothing spectacular. The setting is more off the beaten path of summer homes on the beach, so the town is a bit tired, the beaches aren't packed full, the houses are a bit run down and small. For me, it had a gritty not so clean feel.
I have seen several Islid Le Besco films, she is an alluring actress that plays Gwen. It might be the role, but I just did not care for her. Gwen is incredibly self centered, playing the infant one moment and the tease the next and then finally the experienced easy female. I just did not care for her character. The actress that played Lise had a bit easier time, she simply had to look sullen most of the time, and she did that well.
The film was easily 20 minutes too long at one hour and forty minutes. Some of the inky dark scenes were very hard to make out. Camera work was fairly generic; there was no dramatic framing to add to the movie. In many respects it felt like the director said, frame them in the center just in case the actors move around, we don't want them moving off camera.
The film is not rated. Most likely this would be an R rated film in the US. Gwen takes off her top a few times, and there are several intimate scenes of her with boys. The nudity and intimate scenes are very natural, and not meant to be obscene in any way. It's possible to find this film categorized in the gay film area; that is nowhere near the point of the film. There is one moment where Lise tries to get close to Gwen; it is a tipping point in the film, and is one of those natural brief moments. Language didn't seem to be a problem. And there is no violence.
I still haven't decided if I liked or disliked this film.
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