Seize printemps

This movie is a subtle joy to watch. It doesn't go over any boundaries and stays on the line of where the characters are in their lives, and the escapism within their tiny connection. The script is precise and the scenes are never rushed, and always get the point across. The calm Parisian background is nice alongside the great cinematography. The musical choices are a pretty touch, and some moments are different with a welcoming twist. For a first film, I think Suzanne knocked it out of the park. Her acting and delivery was sincere and spot on, same for Arnaud Valois. It was a sweet telling of curious love.

Written at the tender age of 15, directed and acted at the age of 19, this is Suzanne Lindon's personal coming-of-age retelling. Where the film excels is its gentle approach to the delicate subject matter that never feels sexualized nor uncomfortable. Lindon's ne plus ultra is a series of several beautifully choreographed, artistic dances with her costar, Arnaud Valois. These alluring scenes feel very much like an implicit allegory that viewers are supposed to interpret.

The downturn is the film's absence of resolving questions about an adolescent's inability to handle complex adult relationships, though it manages to successfully navigate around the clichés of this genre. At a mere 72 minute runtime, the relationship dissolves as fast as it builds.

Ultimately, many viewers will be left feeling insatiable when the credits roll...

Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon) is a 16-year-old girl, withdrawn and calm, who lives harmoniously with her sister and her parents in a Parisian apartment. In her comings and goings to school she begins to observe Raphaël (Arnaud Valois), a handsome theater actor twenty years May that she frequents a bar and rehearses and performs in a theater in the area. Finally there will be a meeting that will lead to a romance between the two.

The protagonist, daughter of the renowned actors Vincente Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain (she notably played Simone de Beauvoir in the film Violette) is also the director and screenwriter (she directed this film at age 20 and wrote the script at age 15) of this delicate story of initiation and love between two sentient beings, lonely and bored with their environments and activities.

Despite being a problematic subject, Lindon clearly proposes from her point of view a development where spontaneity and sweetness prevail and surprises with the use of some original scenes that could well be taken as sublimations or metaphors.

16 printemps is a film that looks to poetry but is never naive (and neither is its protagonist) and that is committed to running away from the vision very in vogue in current fiction of adolescence as a territory of conflict, suffering, excess and abuses.

Here she left a report to the director (better to see it after the film, perhaps), which reveals a great cinephile culture and very clear ideas.

Special Mention SIGNIS 35 Award of the Mar del Plata Festival

Not only is this film another problematic romantisation of a "lolita story" (adult man falling in love with teenage girl), but it is also painfully boring. The film is relatively short but it drags on nevertheless. There is barely any dialogue, a lot of shots repeat over and over and any action is missing completely. There is weird dance sequence at one point that is neither explained, nor does it further the plot. Just a few minutes later there is another dance scene, this time a slow dance and the camera stays on this moment for several minutes while nothing else happens. Seriously, don't watch this film and save yourself the time.

Films that deal with the subject of a young girl's romance with an older man can often descend into issues of sexual exploitation, or see it as a result of a troubled family background. It is a relief, therefore, that Suzanne Lindon's seemingly autobiographical take on her own teenage years portrays a happy family, and a gentle, innocent romance. It has the lightness of touch reminiscent of some of Eric Rohmer's coming of age dramas, the only disappointment being that very little is resolved, or even discussed. It's a short, charming film, but one that leaves the viewer feeling vaguely unsatisfied at its conclusion.