An Easy Girl

I really, really love the simple style of the movie. It's billed as a 'Coming of Age' movie by a lot of reviews and ratings. I'm not sure I am of the belief that at 16, is there really a time period in a person's life that coming of age is all figured out by one short summer. Dealing with the unknown world that exists around you as you live. Can an out of school lark around an beautiful, yet bustling resort town that you live all your life really give you the opportunity to 'figure out youself' and know what you are and what you want to be. This is an interesting story about 2 cousins, 1, Sofia is 22 yet is living her life carefree and gives the perona of a much older soul. Dealing with her mourning for her recently lost mother, living off the 'generosity' of older, wealthy men in exchange for a piece of herself. Is she as free and happy as she gives the impression most the time. Or is she the sad, lonely, confused young lady that she reveals in a few short scenes with Maia.

Very good acting by the 2 main ladies. Supporting cast in the men and her mother is well done. As you would expect in a film shot in a fabulous, gorgeous setting like Canne, the cinematography is absolutely amazing. I also took note afterward that I really enjoyed the Directors use of subtle background music and soft luster of water sounds, low voices and at most time, calmness. This IMO is definitely worth a watch. I was pleasantly surprised about the reality also about no abundant over zealous nudity or sex to get the writers points across.

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?

Overall the movie fails in some ways to achieve the depth it wants to achieve, but the coming-of-age theme still struck a chord with me. These slice-of-life scenes - the partying, the low-key drama, the confusion of it all - could be very familiar to all Gen Y or Z viewers.

The movie is very unapologetic in its nudity, sympathetic to a new kind of female character that no movie I have ever seen has been sympathetic to. That extremely realistic, clumsy yet charming karaoke scene was a breath of fresh air.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a GREAT film by objective standards, but it definitely has a soul, something that not many movies have anymore. Creatively shot and immersive in its simplicity, with a feminist message that is all-inclusive.

Strong points:

• Having grown up in the area where this was recorded, I thought it successfully captured the pace of life and the type of people one would find in Cannes

• Pleasant watch, dialogue between the characters flows well and naturally for the most part

• Zahia's acting somehow works. It is quite monotone, although I imagine her casting might have more to do with her reputation than her acting ability. The calmness and seeming detachment of the character creates an air of mystery, an aura of sophistication.

Weaker points:

• The silent, complicit naiveté of Mina Farid works up to a certain degree. There is a point where she begins to express more of a personality (through her exchanges with Philippe) but it does not seem to build up to anything in particular, which I thought was a shame.

• The film is pleasant but uneventful. I wouldn't watch it again but I also wouldn't dissuade anyone from watching it.

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.