À ma soeur!

Plot synopsis:
Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux) and her older sister, Elena (Roxane Mesquida) are vacationing with their parents on the French seaside. Bored of staying in their vacation home, the two walk into town while discussing relationships and their virginity. Although the highly attractive Elena has been promiscuous, she is saving herself for someone who loves her, while heavy-set, overweight Anaïs thinks it is better to lose one's virginity to a "nobody" just to get it over with.
They meet an Italian law student, Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), at a cafe. While Elena flirts with him, Anaïs orders a banana split. Later, Fernando sneaks into the girls' bedroom for a liaison with Elena. Anaïs is awake and watches their entire interaction. After a conversation about Fernando's previous relationships with other women, Elena consents to have sex with him, but backs out at the last minute. Frustrated, Fernando pressures her through various means, including threatening to sleep with some other woman just to alleviate himself. Finally, Elena is coerced into anal sex as a "proof of love", although it is obviously a painful experience for her.
In the morning, Fernando asks for oral sex from Elena before he leaves, but Anaïs has had enough and tells them to let her sleep in peace. The next day, the girls and Fernando go to the beach. Anaïs sits in the ocean in her new dress and sings to herself while Elena and Fernando go off alone together. Later, as the girls are reminiscing about their childhood together back at the house, Elena reveals that Fernando has given her a mauve opal engagement ring while at the beach. That night, Elena gives up her virginity to Fernando as Anaïs silently cries on the other side of the room.
Later, Fernando's mother arrives at the house that Anaïs and her family are renting, asking for the girl's mother to return the mauve opal ring. Their mother discovers Elena's and Fernando's relationship, and angrily decides to drive back to Paris. On the way back she becomes tired and decides to sleep at a rest stop, where an axe murderer arrives, killing Elena with an axe and strangling her mother. He takes Anaïs into the woods and rapes her. When the police arrive the next morning, Anaïs insists he did not rape her, and the credits roll.

Tags: bleak, violence, suspenseful, murder, romantic

Review:
Written and directed by Catherine Breillat, whose other controversial movies about girls and sex I've somehow missed and will now catch up on, the original title of "A ma soeur!" (to, or maybe colloquially for, my sister) makes a lot more sense.But not since the very scary "Smooth Talk" have I seen the seduction of a pretty teen-ager by a hunky older guy shown so effectively, as this is a whole lot more explicit and sensually realistic in how they interact in a cagey game of alluring naiveté vs.
When you feel like that?"And we watch this all played out in a fascinating way, from the viewpoint of, with devastating impact on, her younger, titular sister who has to endure an up close and personal intimacy with them under the noses of oblivious parents.While the sibling relationship is the anchor, the ending may be a culminating precautionary statement on a very negative view of the battle of the sexes, but no one walking out of the theater was sure.The Ontario Film Review Board missed the educational point in censoring the film, but I concur that it's a disturbing film.Listening to Top 40 radio on the way home sure made me suspicious of all those declarations of love pouring out from all those guys.Coincidentally, I re-saw the Rohmer film "Pauline on the Beach" hours later on IFC and now see that Breillat is making a dark commentary on that classic, both riffing off a 14-year-old on vacation amidst a sexual whirligig; the French may have a different reaction than me.(originally written 10/27/2001).
Catherine Breillat showed the jury the world of two sisters which do not only differ in the physical aspect of their characters but also have their own very distinctive expectations and desires when it comes to their first time having sex.
The strong hand of the director and the personal theme makes Fat Girl a film which will be remembered for a long time and which will be the subject of many discussions..
It is only at the end, after some horrible things have happened, that it becomes clear that the film has been leading us to understand the fat sister Anais's strange reaction to what happened to her.
Such criticism misses the point of the movie, I think, which is about the contrast between Anais's first sexual experience and the lovely Elena's, and Anais's acceptance of rape as being preferable to being in love with the boy, as Elena had been, when we and Anais watched Elena's first intercourse.I thought the acting in this film wonderful, and Anais Reboux, as the fat girl is an outstanding find.
Catherine Breillat's "Fat Girl" (2001) is an astounding movie that provides uncompromising and unblinking look at the relationship between two teenage sisters, and their first sexual experiences.
There are two long, thorough and uncomfortable scenes of seducing Elena that take place in the girls' bedroom with the younger sister, 12 years old Anais, the fat girl of the title not quite asleep.
Directed by the 'controversial' Catherine Breillat (she showed a hard-on in her last movie, 'Romance'), the story revolves around a family on holiday with two adolescent sisters, the chubby 13 year old Anaïs (played by Anaïs Reboux) and the rather more svelte Elena (Roxane Mesquida) who is two years her senior, although rather less mature.
Indeed, this is one of the most beguiling scenes in the movie; you feel awkward bearing witness to what is going on - the constant demands of Fernando for 'a demonstration of love', which after refusals brings forth the sorts of coercing phrases regarding anal sex that so many girls must dread to hear.
The only thing that feels out of place is the long sequence at the end of the film, which comes out of nowhere and leaves the audience stunned, as proved by the people that flocked to read the review posted on the lobby of the Lincoln Plaza cinemas, as many viewers obviously had trouble understanding the film.Those last minutes of the film seem endless and proved nothing more than perhaps a director who ran out of ideas and didn't know where to take the story, therefore the ending that will disappoint even those avid Breillat's fans..
Elena is too smart for her age to already know this herself, and tells Anais that the only way she will want to loose her virginity is to a man who she doesn't love and will never see again.The acting between these 2 girls is just pure beauty.
The film seems to be a "Last Tango in Paris" for teenagers, as a young man from Italy takes up with a French girl who has a love/hate relationship with her fat sister (the title character).
But after watching 'Fat Girl', I've realized some foreign movies are as bad as Hollywood's not-much-acting with too-much-special effect films, if not worse.
Virginity is an interesting double standard that woman have to deal with in our society and this film explains that in a very direct way.If you are an easily offended or easily shocked person, do not watch this film because chances are you will be thinking too much about being shocked to think about what Catherine Breillat is trying to say.In my experience, Breillat makes films that are not meant to be "enjoyed" in the traditional sense, but rather analyzed and understood through thought and symbolism.If you are not someone who likes to think about films past the surface, you may not want to watch this film.I think there is a lot to be thought about an analyzed from this film, so if you're up to seeing something unlike you've ever seen before and you're not easily shocked, go for it..
For a dirty old pervert like me to come out of a film that featured a beautiful, naked teenage girl and think "that was bad", it must have been a real shocker.Maybe the cuts that were considered "too much" for our delicate British eyes would redeem it, but I doubt that anything could indulge such contrivance..
The French title, by the way, means "To my sister." To a surprising extent, the movie is a near-remake of the director's earlier 36 Fillette, which also dealt with the sexual travails of a young fat girl.
Words like Provocative, Controversial, Shocking when used to describe a film usually mean a film has already been made that deals with the subject that has more taste, cleverness, attention to narrative believability and character development than the Provocative Controversial and Shocking one.Provocative, Controversial, and Shocking filmmakers can get people to watch their films by being Provocative, Controversial, and Shocking over and over again on basically the same theme.Girls (at least in France) will start French kissing you in a public cafe within the first 2 minutes of meeting you in front of your sister if you are from Italy, cute and have limited command of French but can amazingly have 30 minute intimate conversations and then mentally rape you with their limited command of French.Teenagers (at least in France and parts of Italy) think about sex 24 hours a day and have no other interests that would make them fully rounded human beings worth really caring about and when they actually are intimate show no compassion tenderness or enjoyment of eroticism because men always mentally rape girls and girls are really dense.Mental Rape consists of being - conned into having Anal sex(because it's not real sex)by someone who doesn't really speak your language well- with your sister in the room.
Telling the girl you really love her and want to see her again and then still not really knowing you've been mentally raped because mental rape means you don't realize you're being mentally raped.Wondering if %100 percent of civilization has been missing out by not having their sister in the room while having passionless sex.There can be really cool scenes on highways that build up and then go nowhere.Serial Killers can blunder out of Nowhere smash your window without your Mother waking up, kill your Sister, rip your mothers clothes and fondle her for no apparent reason before killing her and then not kill you but rape you and make you eat your own underwear but letting you live so there will be a cool freeze frame at the end that is Provocative Controversial and Shocking.It is OK and not outrageously hypocritical for a Director seeking the "truth" to lie to a 13 year old actress by telling them their dog just died to get a performance out of them.It is OK (in France at least) to have a 13 year old perform a brutal explicit rape scene and gag on her own underwear as its stuffed into her mouth and have it not considered pornographic but artistic because its the "truth" - by way of a dead dog that's not really dead.It is OK to mock people even liberals!
It is not the same as Enlightenment in the age that nobody cares about anymore because it happened along time ago and they don't bother to teach it in school because they would have to cut the budget on the new Football field to pay for the classes.It is OK and not outrageously hypocritical for a Director seeking the "truth" about the degrading aspects of sex on women as dealt by men to hire a notorious porn star who has dunked womens heads into toilets while having anal sex to act in your film because he has a big weenie.It is OK and not outrageously hypocritical to say professional seasoned actors are all mediocre and conformists because they are too smart to agree to be in your films.It is OK and not outrageously hypocritical to say professional seasoned actors are all mediocre and conformists because they don't look good nude or have small weenies.Saying "All true artists are hated" is only %50 true.
It won't make you an artist but it will get you hated.It is OK for a filmmaker to have a grossly unhealthy, childishly obsessive and ugly view of human sexuality without offering any juxtaposition, contrast or thematic development of this limited theme and pass it off as Provocative, Controversial, Shocking and "truthful" over and over again while using manipulation, hypocritical views, methods and a serious lack of narrative common sense, instead of seeking some kind of therapy so they will stop making the same movies on the same subject the rest of their lives..
This comes from the controversial director who gave us two years ago the erotic thriller from France called "Romance"(2000).If you do,please be forewarned that this is not for the faint of heart."A ma soeur!" or "Fat Girl" which it is called here in the states, tells the story of a sexual coming-of-age thirteen year old named Anais who is against her beautiful sibling Elena,who is fifteen and having sexual intercourse with strangers.
We are well aware of her beliefs at this point in time, however, we can see that she has a common curiosity about sex so much so that she simply wants to see just how the act is performed and executed.This scene is one lengthy, naturalistic shot Breillat conducts in the room shared by Elena and Anaïs, boldly establishing real-time, mood, and discomfort just by the way the shot is framed, how long it lasts, and how the characters are placed inside the shot.
Anaïs is laying in bed several feet away, closing her eyes and pretending her sister's innocence isn't being taken away in front of her.Fat Girl works well because it illustrates the sexual tendencies of the female and a believable sibling rivalry that is captured with surprising purity and tenderness.
If that's the case, it would be tough to communicate such a resonance, but Breillat finds ways to do so in Fat Girl that make the film an unsettling and often very consuming piece of work.Much has been made about the ending that is admittedly out of nowhere, able to shock the most hardened viewer raw because of its jolting nature, and implied to add ambiguity and an additional layer to the story.
Most notably a scene on a beach where Anais tenderly sings to herself.As the film comes to a shocking end it's important to remember the comments on societies ideas of happiness and beauty.
Fat Girl (2001) **** (out of 4) 12-year-old Anais (Anais Reboux) and her 15-year-old sister Elena (Roxane Mesquida) are on summer vacation when the two discover sex and start to explore their virginity.
Breillat's sexual politics come through clearly, as the two main male characters are seen to be obnoxious abusers, exercising their control through sex (the boyfriend) or paternal/capitalist power (the father).The ending, shocking as it is, is too ambiguous.
In this film, premiered at the New York Film Festival and now running at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in Manhattan to apparently sell-out audiences, the complex interdependence of a beautiful fifteen-year old teen with her thirteen- year-old obese, unattractive and perpetually gluttonous sister is sharply etched through the younger girl's unavoidable, and perhaps intended, voyeuristic sharing of the other's initiation into various sex acts with a smooth-talking Italian law student.As a law professor I often can not avoid noting whether legal issues and lawyers in general are protrayed accurately or not.
I have been reading the comments on this film with some interest, but also with a sense of frustration--I feel like somebody who wasn't invited to a party.I won't be able to judge whether Breillat (whose Romance was, bizarrely, passed for viewing here) has made a good film or a bad one, or whether the rape scene has artistic merit, or...what's the use of even discussing this?
Oddly titled 'Fat Girl' for international release, the ambiguity of the original French title of this Catherine Breillat movie is quite important as the film is equally about two sisters: one conventionally pretty and the other slightly overweight.
For those who don't know, Fat Girl tells the story of a chubby 12 year-old gal and her sexy fifteen year-old sister who may as well be called Lolita.The film is pretty short and simplistic but it definitely leaves a lasting impression.
Elena (Roxanne Mesquida), is a breathtaking 15 year old beauty, (so gorgeous almost makes the movie tolerable), while her sister, Anais (Anais Reboux), is an awkward, antisocial, plump (Fat Girl) 12 year old, who is both jealous and fascinated by her sister, who in turn is thrilled to have an audience for her mischief.The plot unfolds, when a slightly older Italian picks up Elena at a café, and is soon sneaked into her bedroom, where in an absurdly cliché manner, he seduces her to have sex with him.
But the stereotypical cultural stereotype of sexually highly strung young Italian, ahem, stallions did slightly drag it down...I didn't actually care much the first time i saw it- i was researching Breillat for an auteur project for college and i happened to discover her in 1000 Movies you must see before you Die and thought yep she's everything i need to be different from the average Tarantino or Scorsese project- she's a Foreign Female Feminist whoop whoop- but I've since had experiences which made me reflect highly upon the subject matter and how much it (the personal experiences) don't actually differ,personally.Sorry, i do film studies..
Elena's reference to being in the "dead man's seat" and the mother's reluctance to drive as well as Anais' commitment to having sex for the first time with somebody that's she's "not in love" with all point to a resolution like this.
(CONTAINS SPOILERS-The ending is discussed) Another stunningly strange film from Catherine Breillat, director of Romance, Anatomy of Hell and Real Young Girl.The plot concerns two sisters the older one, Elena who is about 14 or 15, and is thin and beautiful, and the younger,Anais, who is 12, is fat.
Food and Sex. Fat Girl opens with a scene depicting the sister Anais, 13, and Elena, 15, walking to town from their vacation how to get a drink.
However, the sexual acts depicted in the film are not meant to titillate but to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, because it is one of the few films that reflect the suffering of a young girl who has been suckered by a man she "loves," she is already talking to Fernando about getting married which he fully supports to reach his "goal," and the damaging effects that it has.
Catherine Breillat's "Fat Girl" is another one of those European coming-of-age films where two friends/relatives, one more sexually active than the other, spend a summer vacation in a beach resort.
Unlike other films with strong sexual content, Breillat never switches on the "porno mode", making the scene seem like one single unbroken piece.Briellat's films are famous for having graphic depictions of sex but "Fat Girl" uses a more subtle approach.
***END OF SPOILERS*** One of the best, and darkest, coming-of-age films you will ever encounter, "Fat Girl" is essential viewing to anyone who likes the genre.
A ma souer (crudely re-titled Fat Girl) tells the story of Elena and Anais, two sisters only a few years apart in age.
Being a woman Breillat offers no sympathy to young female characters in her films since she understands their motives like the pretty Elena who want's love before sex but forces herself to believe Fernando's words and allows him to have his way.
There's an interesting story to be told here, too bad it gets cut short by the end-scenes, which feel to me as though they were included strictly for shock-value and to liven up the film a bit, or as a way to abruptly conclude a film without committing to any real resolution.A family on vacation repeatedly shows the audience their dysfunctions, especially amongst the two young sisters - one a 15 year old beauty, the other, her slightly younger sister who is the "fat girl".
While in some scenes, audience get to see how Anais expressed her desire on having sex.What shocks me in the film was not how Elena shared her affection with Fernando, but more rather, Anais's reaction to sexual issues.