Uma Adolescente de Verdade

The first film from Catherine Breillat, the director of "Romance" ('99), that had, upon it's completion in 1975, caused a ratings scandal in France and, beyond being censored, was banned outright. Tellingly, this year (2000) it finally arrived, with little fanfare, on a screen in Paris as, literally across the street at the MK2 Odeon, another controversial film "Baise-Moi" (2000) was causing riots that led to the film being pulled from cinemas.

"Une Vraie Jeune Fille" showcases all of the obsessions that mark Breillat's work through to "Romance" and in a way it is almost more interesting to see the film in retrospect, in light of the films that she made after it, as the lietmotifs present in all were not only prefigured in the first film, but this first film also comments on them.

A girl returns to her parents house from boarding school for the summer. The situation is stifiling and her father's incestuous desires are more than just suggested, though the girl does little to disuade them. She becomes obsessed with a blue collar employee of her father's and his indifference toward her only increases his presence in her numerous sexual fantasies.

The film is visceral and, while the camera is often highly subjective, it maintains, via a cool facade deliberately imitating that of 70's soft porn, that lends it a level of objectivity often entirely absent in American cinema (This film will, incidentally, never reach American screens).

In the same way that "Romance" operates, this film, while exploring detailed fantasies, uses its objectivity to resist any psychoanalyzation of its protagonist. It presents only the events, real events merge with fantasy to lend the pornographic journey/discovery a somewhat hallucinatory aspect

Breillat has found a niche as a filmmaker her films are cool to the touch without being deconstructive, placing her somwhere between Godard and pornography and as a result her films lack a certain element of humanity that prevent them from transcending this niche.

This is Catherine Breillat's directorial debut. She also wrote the screenplay from her novel published the year before.

One may be initially confused about the fact that it was made in 1976, but not released until over 20 years later. No, it is not a video nasty, but it was banned in France and only when films like Salo or Boise Moi got released, were we able to see this film.

Breillat is not for everybody. The sex in her films is in-your-face. You have to look at them with an open mind. They have an artistic value and should be seen for that.

The film, about a 14-year-old's self discovery stars voluptuous Charlotte Alexandra, who would later appear in Emmanuelle 3. She explores her body with the boredom and recklessness of a teen, and wonders about the studs that she comes into contact with. She fantasizes at times, even about her own father. It was just too frank for the censors at the time.

This is not for the trench-coat crowd, as there is no sex, although her father (Bruno Balp) sure acts as if he would be willing. His smiles and touches are most unfatherly.

The ending was both funny and sad.

If the sexual awakening of a teenage girl wasn't already a heavily-subversive, abstract concept, then Catherine Breillat's A Real Young Girl can be viewed as one of the damnedest depictions of one of the most damning subjects in cinema history. Catherine Breillat's, who later became renowned her focus on the sexuality of a teenage girl, first film can be viewed as an unabashed masterpiece or a choppy piece of transgressive cinema depending on how you view it. The film possesses some very strong sequences, features a lead actress who is given so much to do and yet so little, and its approach is only odder and more convoluted the more you watch it.

There's a certain mysticism to A Real Young Girl, thanks to the way it approaches its subject which has been identified by some online reviewers as "surrealism." If I employ the term "surrealism," I stutter when trying to define what I mean. Surrealist cinema is one of the many undefined terms in cinema, right up there with mise-en-scene, and the only thing I can manage to conjure up for my interpretation is the use of shocking or ambiguous imagery mixed with a dreamlike effect. According to my own personal definition, A Real Young Girl fits right in under surrealist cinema, concerning Alice Bonnard (Charlotte Alexandra), a fourteen-year-old girl who returns home from a boarding school in France on summer break. She discovers her father has hired a young handyman named Jim (Hiram Keller), who Alice immediately takes a liking to. She begins having graphic sexual fantasies involving Jim, one of which has power to shock you raw and should not be spoiled here. Alice continues with these elaborate yet simultaneously choppy dream sequences, where she seems to hunger for the most explicit sex. Certain flashbacks even involve her masturbating in her younger years, with one scene in particular showing her utilizing a spoon for aid in masturbation.

Breillat is absolutely fearless here, constructing several fantasies in order to achieve a combination of shock and insight into the psyche of a teenage girl. It is this precise approach that has kept her a reputable French director even in modern times. Charlotte Alexandra only elevates this material, often utilizing blanks stares and fits of pleasure for added effect. Her character, however, is pretty vapid, not connecting with many other individuals and only living in this world of dizzying flashbacks and uncertain explicitness. One wonders how young Alice behaves at school and if these sexual tendencies continue in the crowded dormitories back there.

The biggest issue with A Real Young Girl is its greatest strength, which is its abstract depiction of the life of this young girl. The film is a handful, often incoherent, sometimes maddening, and occasionally boring as its artfully tries to obscure what exactly is happening on screen and sometimes leaving Alice behind in a film that directly focuses on her. Breillat has always been a director that leaves a great deal of contemplation on the viewer. Consider her later film Fat Girl and how its graphic, tragic ending could be interpreted in several different ways.

Now imagine that as the entire basis for A Real Young Girl; a film where every scene can be interpreted a handful of different ways. There's nothing wrong with ambiguity in a film, but when a film is predicated so much so off of the ability to deceive and play with the viewer, then its core idea and takeaway points become a muddle. The only thing I can think of is that this film is a showcase for the sexual awakening of a teenage girl in in explicit and heavily graphic form, but Breillat didn't go through all this trouble to make a simple showcase. There needs to be something more and the answer can only be found with either a second or third viewing or the exploration of several different analyses.

Starring: Charlotte Alexandria. Directed by: Catherine Breillat.

The film is very unusual at times and its sheer sexuality often gets too heavy. However it is certainly worth seeing, simply for its madness. And for the smoking hot Charlotte Alexandra. She alone is worth the price of admission. Shocking that the film's release was held up until 2000 (25 years later!) due to budgetary problems.

A Real Young Girl (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Fourteen year old Alice (Charlotte Alexandra) is on summer vacation when she starts to experiment with her sexuality. Most of this has her doing things to herself but soon she starts to lust after an older guy. This was made in 1975 but the producer's were so shocked that they kept it on the shelf until 2001, after director Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl became such a hit. I enjoyed Fat Girl a lot more but this film here was pretty good, although the strong sexual content and nudity will certainly make most shy away from it. The way the director explores women's sexuality is brave to say the least.