Une fille facile

The story revolves around two very different cousins, Naima and Sofia. Sofia, the elder of them, 22 as we learn later, decided to make a living as a good time girl. With her great looks, although much enhanced through surgery, she is very successful in getting in contact with rich, elder men. By accepting expensive presents from them and staying for awhile in their circle until the get bored and find a way to get rid of her, she lives well without a regular work.

This summer of the story she stays with her younger cousin Naima in Cannes where she starts to give Naima little bits of advise how to get around in the world. Naima, only 16 at the time, is rather naive at the beginning, but in the course of the summer, she gets wise to Sofia and starts to see her in a much less admiring light.

Although the title of the film points to Sofia, it is Naima, who is the more interesting character. Sofia already had made her decision how to tackle life, Naima is drawn between the "glamourous" life, which Sofia seems to lead, and normal friendships like Dodo, a young, probably gay, guy who wants to become an actor. And jobs, as her mother, who works as a maid at a very fancy hotel and restaurant, who offers her an internship at the restaurant's kitchen.

Naima is for some time very confused by the sudden mixup with the life of two 40 year old men, one the owner of a yacht, the other his paid companion. While the owner Andrè certainly prefers Sofia and soon has sex with her, the other one, Phillipe, is more respectful towards Naima and figures correctly, that she is still a minor, and keeps his distance.

The whole story is a coming-of-age drama around Naima, who likes her cousin, although she sees things through her, that are shocking.

I didn't know the background of the actress who played Sofia, but I found she looked perfect for the role. Now I know why. As for the young girl who played Naima, she has the more demanding acting role and she handles it very well. Recommendable film!

Although it's set in the present day, there's a feeling that the events of this film are dredged from distant memories. It begins with the start of Naïma's last school holidays growing up in the strange double world of Cannes. Naïma herself (played by Mina Farid) comes from a normal world where her mother works as a chambermaid in one of the posh hotels frequented by the people from the other world of ridiculous idleness and unfeasibly opulent motor yachts moored on the front.

Out of the blue, Naïma's older cousin, Sofia appears and it's quickly apparent that she is the "fille facile" of the title, her over-tanned body easily flaunted for any passing lothario. Zahia Dehar has apparently some autobiographical experience to draw on in depicting Sofia and she makes the best of a fairly meagre characterisation.

Sofia quickly settles her attentions on Andres (Nuno Lopes) who owns one of the yachts while Naïma tags along and turns, in time, to Andres' sidekick, Philippe. Benoît Magimel plays Philippe, one of the more complex characters, well, but always feels too old to be of much interest to a sixteen-year-old.

Sofia and Andres' relationship is based on the exchange of meaningless sex for expensive presents. There's a retro style to some of the cinematography especially as it lingers sometimes a second of two too long on Sofia's curves and on the couple's antics. It all emphasises the dreamlike feel of the whole movie. Naïma observes the couple with a mixture of distaste and fascination - enough fascination, at least, for her to neglect her Compulsory Gay Friend, Dodo.

About half way through the film, I was reminded of a couple of days from my distant past when my sister and I, naively backpacking around the US, happened upon the lives of a couple superficially similar to Sofia and Andres. But in our short time as his guests, this real guy showed a conflict over his life choices and offered me an alcohol-fuelled, but apparently sincere, apology for the shallowness of his lifestyle.

Sadly, introspection like this was rather lacking from several characters in the movie and that's its major weakness. But for Naïma herself, the story is believable, and for that, it's worth watching. 7/10.

Naïma (Jiang Rong) is almost 16 years old and lives in Cannes at her mother's house. Her family receives the impromptu visit of her Parisian cousin Sofia (Zahia Dehar), a young woman with a silhouette as divine as artificial. Naïma will spend an unforgettable summer on a luxury yacht along the French Riviera, with Sofia as well as Philippe (Benoît Magimel) and Andres (Nuno Lopes), two forty-year-old men, wealthy and attractive. Thus, she will get to know herself better and leave her adolescence to finally take life in her own hands.

The French title, i.e. « une fille facile » meaning an 'easy' woman, is deliberately provocative and tantalizing quite as the choice of the deliberately inflammatory Zahia Dehar who was a hot news topic, one decade ago, because of a scandal with a part of the French soccer team using the services of this juvenile call girl. This is slightly misleading. In my humble opinion, the focus is also on Naïma and a pivotal period of her life thanks to Sofia and Philippe.

As a postscript, 1) The incident with the collector's sextant is far-fetched and particularly disappointing: a real weakness in the script. 2) I would personally have imagined the end scene punctuated by the song 'My way' popularized in 1969 by Frank Sinatra. Why? Well, she obviously found it, didn't she?

Know how to make good movies. This wasn't a blockbuster but was very entertaining and the acting was great. For some reason even though I understand little, if any, French, I understood perfectly what was happening throughout the movie. Maybe some American directors and actors should take some time off from their superhero films and go to France and learn how to make real movies.

Only Contemporary European and French cinema can give you both so much simplicity and grandiosity in a plot.