Giovane e bella

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.

A young and beautiful girl sells her body to rich older men, lying about her age, and hiding it to her parents and friends. Until an unexpected event forces her to confront reality. The new film's subject from French director François Ozon is close to Julia Leigh's 2011 "Sleeping Beauty", but the treatment is quite different. Nothing is odd or strange here. We follow Isabelle's journey through the discovery of sexuality in a very realistic fashion, typical of Ozon's filmmaking.

The only trouble is that we are not troubled ! The script is so predictable that we get very few surprises throughout the film, and we do not care for Isabelle's fate at all. That's a shame considering the interesting subject.

The lack of explanation for her behavior is a good thing, we do not get the usual psychological/environment/parents syndrome, but this leads to a certain shallowness.

Actors do a fine number, especially the beautiful Marine Vacth, whom we should see again very soon, hopefully in a more rewarding role.

I really liked Ozon's last film (Dans la maison), but this one was a disappointment for me. It's hard not to see this story as a bunch of first world problems. But at its core, there are several good ideas and stories - and none of them gets the spotlight. The director goes from one subplot to the other, without really developing the characters, and seemingly has no idea what to do with this story. (And this makes the ending even worse.) But time to time, some settings or the actors' performance can tell us more than a thousand words.

Anyway, it's a thoughtful and basically a good movie, but it's too unfocused, unbalanced to go anywhere. If you haven't seen Dans la maison from Ozon, I'd recommend that one instead.

Having lived a relatively sheltered life, a young 17 year old girl, Isabelle (Marine Vacth), begins to explore her sexuality in rather a risqué fashion. We meet Isabelle on holiday on the eve of her 17th birthday. While on vacation, she meets a German boy and has an underwhelming first sexual experience. We meet her again in the Autumn to learn she is now leading a double life, moonlighting as a high class escort while still living under her mother's roof and attending school.

Of course there are some very ugly situations and in some hard to watch scenes, we see Isabelle near accepting the degrading attitude of some of her clients as if it is all her self worth, but then we also get to see her striking up a tender relationship of a different kind, with a much older man and later witness a conceited smile as she turns on her phone to a plethora of messages. Why does she do this to herself? Is it a form of self-harm or a narcissism? Is it an addiction, spurred from a desire to be loved without outwardly feeling capable of loving? Does she do it for the danger, the fear, the excitement, or is the money a factor also? Is it part due to having an estranged father? Does she enjoy it because it endows her with power over men and draws jealousy and insecurity from women? Or is she simply feeling starved of experience and hungers exploration?

All these questions are certainly posed or at least hinted at, but don't expect clear explanations or moral conclusions. No, the movie explores these themes without outrightly condemning or condoning her actions. Yes, Isabelle does draw herself into difficulty through her actions, but the discourse of this movie is not one of the obvious cause and effect we have come to know from mainstream cinema. There is no deus et machina to extricate an easy exit or satisfactory fix or lesson well learnt or crime punished. There are only the awkward moments that life throws at us in unexpected ways and uncomfortable truths that may never be satisfactorily reconciled. In other words, we are looking through a window into but a moment within this young lady's life --the passing of a year, the exploration of her sexuality-- and the fascinating aspect of this movie is that we see her live out the extraordinary in quite an ordinary way.

The French have quite a tradition of films about prostitution. Starting of course by 'Belle de Jour', the iconic movie in which Cathérine Deneuve decides to work in a brothel out of boredom. Ten years ago, there was 'Nathalie', with Emannuelle Béart in the role of a high- class call girl who is hired to spy on a man suspected of adultery. And only two years ago, the underrated 'Elles' hit the screens, with Anaïs Demoustier as a young call girl and Juliette Binoche as a journalist writing a story about prostitution by students. These are just three examples, I'm sure there are more.

And now, 'Jeune et Jolie' (Young and Beautiful) is continuing the tradition. It tells the story of Isabelle, a quiet seventeen year old girl, who for unknown reasons starts working as a call girl. The film is divided into four chapters, one for every season. In the summer part, Isabelle loses her virginity to a German hunk during a beach holiday, just days before her seventeenth birthday. The next part is set in the autumn, and already Isabelle is working as a high heeled hooker, routinely visiting paying customers in posh Parisian hotels. The next winter everything goes wrong and her parents learn about her secret life. The last part, set in spring, shows how she is trying to pick up her old life as a student, but it's difficult to erase the past.

The good thing is that director François Ozon doesn't judge Isabelle, nor explains why she does what she does. He only suggests that she is not really happy, she seems remote, ill- tempered and emotionally vulnerable. Isabelle is not very popular or likable. The only one she really seems to connect to on an emotional level, is her younger brother Victor. In a recent interview, actress Marine Vacth suggests that Isabelle just wants to try something exciting. It might as well have been drugs.

Ozon tells the story well. Because of the four seasons concept, the story keeps on developing. He also throws in some nice cinematographic treats, like the small scene of Isabelle and her fellow students commenting in close-up about a poem by Rimbaud. The final scene consists of a surprising twist, involving some superb acting by Charlotte Rampling. Also working very well are the songs by Françoise Hardy on the soundtrack.

Apparently, 'Jeune & Jolie' has been described as 'Belle de Jour 2.0'. That is definitely exaggerated. But nevertheless, it is a fine coming-of-age film.