Respire

If person like Sarah haven't not influenced yours life, than this movie can be to short to make reasonable impact on you. On other side, if yours life was strongly influenced by person like Sarah, then this movie could be a little bit to harsh. Before I met such a person I was unable to imagine that this kind of people could possible exist – it just does not make any sense. It was harsh to see this movie, but it is very good to be reminded in clear way that those people exist.

The opening shots of 'Breathe' depict the tranquil facades of a quiet provincial town in Southern France as a new day dawns. A sensitive teenage girl called Charlie awakens to the habitual sounds of her parents arguing over the father's infidelities. By evening the marriage has disintegrated, and Charlie begins a new chapter in her struggle to avoid emotional stress.

Friendship with a charismatic new classmate called Sarah seems to offer Charlie some refuge from the painful aftermath of her family's break-up. The pair quickly develop a bond - but it soon becomes apparent Sarah shares some of Charlie's father's tendencies toward dishonesty and selfishness. Charlie's hunger for affection makes her especially susceptible to Sarah's deceptions and manipulations, and the relationship transforms into a quicksand of suspicion, jealousy and betrayal. The tension builds to a suffocating level as the shifting alliances of Charlie's teenage community increase her sense of isolation. 'Breathe' has some similarities to the American melodrama 'SWF', but it's far more credible, layered and well constructed. The film is also flawlessly written, directed and acted throughout, which makes its unexpected conclusion especially electrifying.

If you are an adult, mature enough to find teenage silliness boring, the first part of this movie will seem a bit slow paced. Once the pathological relationship between Sarah and Charlie become clear it will evince somewhat more interest. But I think the "surprise" ending will not prove to be a surprise to most intelligent adult viewers. And when it's all over you may justifiably ask yourself, what was the purpose of this movie? Entertainment? Only for those who find themselves entertained by a rather lurid world of teenage passions. I hope you're not sitting next to one of those. A cautionary tale for parents? Hardly. A character portrayal in which one can empathize with the difficulties of the two girls because their high school experience is so much like our own, or like others we knew? Not very likely. So the movie, if it serves any purpose at all, is for the vicarious enjoyment of a seemly existence and its consequences. At many points in the movie you are almost sure to ask yourself whether Charlie couldn't have made much better decisions in her relationship with Sarah. The class, at the beginning of the movie, which tells the students (and surely warns the rest of us) that passion and intellect cannot coexist is certainly a very French view and this comment is surely meant to underline the rest of the movie. Perhaps if this were the inflamed passion of adults, as in the Postman Only Rings Twice, this forewarning would be appropriate - but unnecessary. Here it is needed but doesn't help.

So she's a great director, too. I still haven't seen Laurent's 'Les Adoptes', but will close this gap asap after watching this her 2nd feature film. On the surface alone 'Respire' offers everything that's good about and expected from a social drama produced in Europe: hand- held camera, faithfulness to the light in which we'd see each scenery in real life, the effects being in the faces rather than in post production. The story being told by those faces as much as by film narrative, foremost by Josephine Japy's face. And the film unfolds as everything but mere surface. It's a very simple story, a school friendship going awry with tragic consequences, but Laurent's focus is on the subtleties of this relationship's evolution in each moment, and in collaboration with formidable acting this makes it a compelling watch. One small but powerful feature of film language that particularly delighted me was the smart use of slow motion: slow-mo is too often used in other films in a very annoying, bashful in-your-face way, here it is sparsely used, brief moments that follow the sole purpose of accentuating, and these moments work. The final result is a quiet, engaging, and ultimately disquieting and unsettling portrayal of the potency of emotional conflict at teen-age, of how unrehearsed and thus affecting, cruel and potentially dramatic and disastrous actions and reactions can be, especially if the pretence of adjustment hides the cracks of insufficient, failing or absent home support. Reacting increasingly becomes overreacting, foreboding eventual catastrophe; vulnerability takes vengeance on the greater vulnerability, and it is the containment of this greater vulnerability beating with the heart of the more reasoned protagonist that will in the end cease abruptly and give way to a surrender of control. The final take, as simple, precise and convincing as the entire film, is nothing short of ingenious. Praise be due to the performances of both leads, especially Josephine Japy (often reminding me of a young Binoche), as well as that of Isabelle Carre, playing Charlie's mother.

A classroom discussion on passion, right at the beginning of the movie, gives an indication of what's to follow. Passion in excess is dangerous says the teacher, in response to our lead character's question, but alas, passion by it's very nature is prone to excess. Controlled passion is near impossible. So it is with our introverted self-controlled, studious heroine, who tries to bring her feelings for her classmate under control. But the other girl just won't let her be, not knowing low close to the edge she's pushing things. The French students in this movie make for a refreshing change from the way high school students are depicted in Hollywood movies. Here, they are fairly mature, intelligent, interested in their studies, never bullying, certainly not hyper sexed. Why haven't I given it a 10? Well, as another reviewer said, you do wonder at times during the movie what the point of it all is...