Les filles ne savent pas nager

This film was a startling surprise. I found the natural performances and "un-rushed" pacing remarkably refreshing. I would compare the originality of the teenage characters more to Ghost World than the way they are often portrayed in popular American films like "Fast Times . ." or "Clueless". Gwen is a full of life, imaginitive, dark and original character. Lise was the misguided, down on her luck loner looking for answers in her mixed up world. I dont see how people could say this was boring.

How many times have you seen two French teenagers slap each other with fish guts. No, there is no gun scene and unlike Road to Perdition, it lacks stylized violence which may be hard for some viewers to handle. Aside from the abrupt ending, Its original characters, lovely seaside vistas, natural performances, and creative storytelling make this a hidden masterpiece.

"Girls Can't Swim (Les filles ne savent pas nager)" gets a lot right about teens, in a debut by writer/director Anne-Sophie Birot:

The endless summer feeling of life Down the Shore (only here the Shore is at Brittany so there's no Bruce Springsteen music, let alone any beach music).

The implied class tensions between townies and seasonals.

The restless rebellion of adolescence, particularly as bursting sensuality.

The casual back-and-forth between parents and teens as the kids alternate between neediness and independence, complicated by the parents' own financial and relationship problems.

And most particularly the exaggerated passions of teen girl friendship.

But the aimlessness of summer vacation is mimicked too much in the pacing, with an abrupt culmination that's not fair to the characters. I must have missed the explanation for the title.

Clearly Eric Rohmer's "Pauline on the Beach" has haunted today's French women filmmakers as this is the second such movie I've seen in a year that feels like an angry response to that sage putting a teen girl amidst adult sharks, after "Fat Girl (a ma soeur)."

(originally written 5/11/2002)

Two French girlfriends await their annual get-together at the start of summer vacation. The film is constructed in three parts. It starts with the story of Gwen, a flirtatious and perky blonde. The focus then shifts to Lise, a dark-haired and depressed teen who has just lost her father. The two friends come together in the final part. It's not clear what the point of this movie is. There isn't much of a plot. As the two girls undergo mostly mundane experiences, it makes for rather uninteresting viewing. Something out of the ordinary does happen towards the end, but it is so bizarre that it seems to have been added just to have a big finish.

The pace was slow - but that's fine. Life as a teenager can be slow and drawn out, teenage summers last at least double as long as those in later life. Isild Le Besco as Gwen was superficially transparent, boys, clothes, sunglasses, her friendship with tomboy, Lise; but that was the problem; superficiality. There were no long, lingering, artistic longshots of the resort, beachlife, metaphorical flowers blooming or as in the case of Gwen and Lise's relationship, getting frazelled and decaying in the hot sun. The boys were just adjuncts, there was no character development, because they were given no characters.

The implied sensuality of the two girls' relationship was only hinted at, as was the nature of the relationship of Lise's two sisters, briefly filmed together in the bath, one washing the other's back, possibly a prelude to a more frontal association, sufficient, anyway, for Lise to take her grandmother shopping to avoid any possible embarrassment.

Had the girls changed perceptions, desires and interests during their last summer together been properly depicted, had the boys been human, had there been a little impish humour, this could have been a minor gem, or a gem about two minors. As it is, the acting was proficient (it's amazing Karen Alyx - Lise - was 21 when she played the role, she seemed so much a teen) the direction by Anne-Sophie Birot, adequate, but very much a woman's perspective, including the integrity of the nudity. But the ending was unnecessarily shallow; the girls should have just had a catfight and video'd it for You Tube, that would have been more realistic, although less French. Maybe You Tube wasn't around in the year 2000. It should have been, the film needed it.

My sister and I saw this film at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago. The film seemed to drag on forever without much forward motion. When it finally ended, the entire audience burst out laughing--a very odd response to a tragic narrative. I'm not really sure why everyone laughed--nervous tension, perhaps, since the film ends on a down-note. But, it was more than that. It seems that the pacing and the setting were so culturally removed from what most Americans are used to that the film seems almost absurd. Absurd is really not the right word--perhaps the film is just very difficult to identify with due to the overlong and tedious pacing and the utter lack of humorous moments to offset the downward spiral into sadness. I hate to mention cultural difference as being a reason to judge a film, but clearly some universal message was missing. Kieslowski's _Ten Commandments_ are examples of films that depict a very different culture from what some people in other countries might experience, but Kieslowski manages to instill a sense of humanity and timelessness to his work that _Girls Can't Swim_ cannot seem to muster.

And from my perspective, the two girls simply weren't very compelling. One teenage girl explores sex, the other is depressed over her father's death and does things like see how long she can hold her breath under water. Ho hum. Both could have used a bit more character development.

This isn't a bad film--just a very slow, humorless one.