Jeune & Jolie

This film is incredibly slow and apathetic, but that's the beauty of it. Isabelle (Marine Vacth), a girl with a stable family who finds herself in a stable environment, is a strange creature. From what I've noticed, she only had a real connection with two people: her little brother and Alice (Charlotte Rampling). She decides to become a prostitute, even though she didn't need the money and could've had sex with any young guy, and her reasons to start doing such a thing aren't clear. François Ozon directed a film with a lot of million dollar questions.

From my personal perspective, she did it for the taste and the thrill provided by the sense of being independent, of doing something dangerous and morally wrong. Even though she felt somewhat disgusted and guilty for having sex with strange men, she kept doing it to, somehow, prove herself that she didn't need anyone's approval to do what she wanted to do - in this case, a dangerous and morally wrong thing. She probably didn't plan to tell anyone, but her family found out in a bad way. I see her as a rebel hearted girl who feels trapped in a cage (in her case, her mother, society, morality, a nice and stable life) and who's holding back her feelings because, if she let them out, they might be too overwhelming - that's why she so apathetic all the time. Or maybe she just couldn't care less about anyone because life is boring and we're gonna die.

I enjoyed the film. I enjoyed the photography, the scenarios, the actors, the language, etc. It's not an exciting production, though. It's the perfect movie to watch on a rainy Sunday, when there's nothing else to do.

Young & Beautiful is one of François Ozon's few completely serious movies, without even the gentle humor of In the House. This will appeal more to fans of Time to Leave or Under the Sand than to fans of 8 Women, for example - unless you love every movie he's ever made, as I do.

This is the marvelously well written, directed, photographed and acted story of a beautiful girl named Isabelle, from a prosperous and loving middle-class family, who turns 17 during the course of the movie. She and her younger brother Victor are best friends.

She has a strong sex drive but quickly discovers that she doesn't really enjoy the act itself. Her body insists on doing it, and she's in high demand because of her extraordinary beauty, so she goes online and turns it into a part-time job on weekdays after school. She does it more to channel her frighteningly strong drive into something productive than for the money - which seems to me like a remarkably intelligent and sensible decision for a 17-year-old. No one has any idea that she's doing it, even Victor.

Everything goes well until the police investigation of a sudden but natural death involves her, and the cops tell her mother. Since she's a minor, she's legally a victim, not a criminal, but the proverbial stuff hits the fan anyway.

Besides Ozon's brilliance and skill, which are remarkably consistent across the wide range of genres he experiments with, this movie is extraordinary for three wonderful performances. First is Marine Vacth as Isabelle. It's rare and delightful when a great beauty turns out to be greatly talented as well.

Second is Fantin Ravat as her little brother Victor. Theirs is the strongest, healthiest, most interesting and most gratifying sibling relationship I've ever seen.

Third is Charlotte Rampling as the wife of one of Isabelle's clients. The scene between her and Vacth is like a cinematic jewel, full of beauty and magic. Those two powerful women and Ozon raise an already very good movie into the heavens. Fantastic.

This film tells the story of a teenage middle class girl who explores her sexuality by becoming a prostitute.

"Young and Beautiful" shows a lot of skin, but little of the mind. I mean this in a good way though, because it keeps Isabelle's life choices mysterious. When it does show Isabelle's mind (in the scene where she talks to the psychologist), she opens up and shows her true emotions that have been suppressed. Isabelle's short confession is enough to provoke much thought, and makes the film more sophisticated. It's just like the scene towards the end, when she switches on her phone, her brief facial expression is already telling us a lot.

The plot is not as tight or thrilling as Ozon's previous film "In the House", but it is still enjoyable as it lingers my mind after watching it.

The French teenager Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is spending summer holiday with her middle-class family in the south of France and decides to lose her virginity with the German teenager Felix (Lucas Prisor). Then she returns to Paris with her mother Sylvie (Géraldine Pailhas), her stepfather Patrick (Frédéric Pierrot) and her younger brother Victor (Fantin Ravat).

Then Isabelle works as a call girl using the nickname Lea and meeting old men. She feels affection for her client Georges (Johan Leysen) that is married with a daughter. When Georges dies from a heart attack while having sex with Isabelle in a hotel, she flees but the police investigate and identifies her. The detectives in charge of the investigation disclose to Sylvie that is devastated. Isabelle quits prostitution, but once prostitute, forever prostitute.

"Jeune & Jolie" by François Ozon begins as a coming of age version of "Belle de Jour", where the lead character is attracted by money instead of by sexual fantasies. Even the poster recalls the one from Buñuel's masterpiece. Isabelle belongs to a middle-class family and does not have financial needs but despite of that, she is attracted by money. This is clear based on her reaction when her mother takes her money and when she explains to the police detective how she started to prostitute after receiving an offer from a stranger. Further, she is cold and seems to care only to her younger brother and Georges. When she loses her virginity with Felix, it seems to be part of her plan to explore her sexuality to make money. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Jovem e Bela" ("Young and Beautiful")

A girl goes to the beach with her parents and younger brother. She loses her virginity to a boy she meets there. The experience is rather unsatisfying, so for some reason she becomes a high-class prostitute for middle-aged and elderly men.

It is a long-time convention of French cinema for young girls (often underage girls) to become sexually involved with older men. It might be a nod to the changing times that in films like this and "Student Services" and "Elles", they're now apparently getting paid for it at least. But while those other two French films (and the similar Eastern European film "A Call Girl") are about university students who resort to prostitution to pay for their studies, this is a younger girl who still lives with her parents, and her motives for selling her body are pretty opaque to say the least. Still, this film is perhaps less hypocritical than the others because while ALL these films contain more sex/nudity than is really necessary, this at least is a strange but singular story of one character and is not positing itself as a "problem" movie about how terrible it is that unbelievably sexy young girls are doing things like this--while, of course, SHOWING them doing things like this as much as possible.

This film is no better or worse than the aforementioned ones, but it is somewhat of disappointment coming as it does from auteur Francois Ozon. Ozon is perhaps most famous for "Swimming Pool", but he has actually made any number of interesting films like "Sitcom", "See the Sea", "Criminal Lovers", and even the murder-mystery musical "8 Women". Compared to those, this film is just horribly conventional. The actress Marine Vacth, a gorgeous former model, is obviously about five years older than her character, which is probably a good thing because even when she's not having graphic sex with the elderly, she's being spied on sunbathing topless, showering, or masturbating by the male members of her own family! Her performance is adequate, but really pales compared to the performance by Adele Exarchopolous in "La Vie d'Adele" (which this film competed against at Cannes last year). But then it's hard to give a believable performance when you aren't given a believable character.