Clèves

No pun intended - youth ... something we crave for. Either in thinking back to it - or trying to "capture" it. And youth that tries to get experience ... sometimes with any means necessary. But if they are not checked, if there are no ... well let's call them borders. So our main character here really goes out (no pun intended) and tries things out.

The amount of teasing is ... really high here. Not for the easily offended - even if they might check and realize that she is an adult (but plays an underage teen). So be aware of that - this is a movie. But it does represent how some teens grow up ... what traps they fall victim of ... and what traps they themselves get to be for others.

It is easy to judge and be high and mighty. Humans are not always good ... and this movie is showing us what can happen, when things get out of control ... more than once.

It is difficult to describe this movie, other than so say it seems very real. Not some sensationalist message put out there to get young male audiences. We first are introduced when Solange is about 11, and she gets her first period. But she really doesn't even want to talk about it with her mother. Then we meet her 4 years later. And she is in a tough situation. Her father, an airplane steward, is cheating on her mother, her mother struggles with the small shop and has depression. Guillaume, a metalhead and a gentle giant, is a neighbor, babysitter and friend. But she finds herself a flirt, and also walls herself off, not wanting advice from anyone, nor even help. It is the story of growing up and coming of age that is done very well. She is very strong willed, and also over her head dealing with the emotions of a young girl her age. A very thoughtful movie in that we see her struggles.

A dysfunctional family , a 15 years old girl discovering her sexuality, parties, exercises of seduction, a presumed uncle as victim and a pregnancy not so serious perceived.

The good acting and the high realism are the basic virtues of not so comfortable story about a sort of Lolita who, out of controll of adults- a father preocuped by his new girlfriend, a depressed mother looking for solve her problems, has entire liberty to explore, manipulate, seduce and ignore the crisis of near others.

This makes this film special - the courage and smart way to translate in image the states of an age of selfishness and profound vulnerability, cynism and ignore of the others. And it did just a beautiful job.