Bande de filles

Girl power comes from French cinema in this classic coming-of-age story; female centric and empowerment driven, Girlhood is centered around 16 year old Marieme and her struggles with peer pressure and self discovery. While the tale may be repetitive, director Céline Sciamma gives fresh visuals and dramatic flare to the film, which is captivating from the very start. Set in the lower class suburbs of France, Girlhood is as much an emotional journey as it is a visual one, and a satisfying film from beginning to end.

Girlhood, which, by the way, is not a female answer to Richard Linklater's Boyhood, is very performance driven and an actor's dream. Karidja Touré carries the film on her small shoulders, projecting various emotional moments with strength. One scene in particular is very special to the film; the four girls rent a hotel room and get all dressed up in formal wear to just hang out with each other and drink alcohol. Eventually, they play Rihanna's "Diamonds" and begin dancing away their problems from the outside world. This moment in the film is captured so beautifully, it could have (and should have) been Rihanna's official music video. The blueish tones of the room, the general feeling of sisterhood, and the miming of the lyrics while dancing around in beautiful dresses show the girls' dreams of a better life, but making the most of what they have in that moment. It's a very powerful scene, which ultimately gives Girlhood its authenticity as the perfect portrait of the undeniable complexity of adolescent life.

Growing up on an estate, young Marieme finds herself leaving education, isolated within her own community, and stressed by those many forces on her. When she gets a new group of friends, she finds herself drawn into this new group of girls, changing her lifestyle as a result.

Perhaps overpraised when it was released, I was pretty impressed by this film once I got to see it. It is an odd mix and one that is defined by the music and visual heavy opening; this is an approach that the film frequently takes – which is to have fun and stylish moments amid the crime, violence, and sense of oppression that exists otherwise. In some ways one could accuse the film of glamorizing this world, however what it is actually doing is presenting it in a natural and convincing way. By letting us in on the fun and comradery of Marieme's group, the film shows us why she is drawn into it, and the contrast between what she has otherwise. This is not the film saying that the gang is a better option, or a healthy one, but it does help us understand what is going on with the characters.

These moments of style and fun also prop up the feeling of the estates as a real place. The pressure on the women in the film is tangible, and the nature of the world is played out well. It is a gritty and quite raw picture and one that works. In the lead Touré does well with the journey from child, to girl, to violence, and into a place that is really none of them but is informed by a wisdom that she hard earns. She is well supported by the rest of the cast – with Sylla being one standout. As a whole the film is well balanced and delivers a natural and engaging coming of age story.

The film follows the life of a teen growing up in a rough suburb of Paris. The technic on display is solid, creating strong visual motifs that carry and modulate throughout the film. The director likes showing characters in groups, dominating the frame. The film understands the attraction of a posse to a person not fully confident or formed, and communicates it soundly. She contrasts these images with the more personal shots of people alone, lost. These shots are rare, and really work all the better for it. A two-shot is also in use, but also frequent. There is a dissonance, something not fully confident about these shots, showing the heroine's inability to fully be herself and complete with just one person.

While the visual strategy of the film is sound, it also comes off as somewhat simplified. There is only so much you can tell the viewer with a specific shot structure. And one of the things that stays bland is the main character. She never seem to come together as a person, and while thematically it makes perfect sense, it feel frustrating to watch a film that ask you to follow a progression, only to not get to see any kind of payoff. The development is really minimal, with most of the broad changes happening when we're not around.

Overall, the filmmaking kept me interested moment to moment, and the film does take bold turns in order to take the story and character into different places. But the characters leave a lot to be desired and I just never got into the main character arc.

My favourite film of 2014 being Boyhood, I was naturally curious to see 2014's Girlhood. Actually, Girlhood- which comes from France- isn't meant to be the feminine equivalent of Boyhood. It doesn't have the same scope and clearly wasn't filmed over 12 years. It deals with a teenage girl who, failing to graduate to high school, drops out of vocational school to join a gang.

It's not as rough as you would expect for the first half of the film- what we have is an extended view of girls who like clothes, jewelry, singing Diamonds and even miniature golf. It's in the second half when we see a more serious fight (our protagonist, "Vic," uses a knife to remove another girl's bra) and then sex, and insults about being a slut. Instead of the gang being portrayed as a truly destructive force, it's actually more of a sisterhood whose members discourage Vic from descending deeper into criminality.

We certainly see Vic's motivations for joining the gang- she has little future, and is told it's too late for her. Not encouraging. Her home life is rough, too. I can't say I was blown away by Girlhood, but it's a believable drama with a sympathetic protagonist.

In 2014, two films with similar titles were released: "Boyhood" and "Girlhood". But they were very different. The first was an American movie, shot over 12 years, with an all- white cast. The second was a French work with a narrative of a few months and a cast almost wholly black.

"Girlhood" - which was called "Bande De Filles" in the original French - tells the story of 16 year old Marieme (a remarkable showing by young Karidja Touré) who joins a gang of three other girls in an effort to find some status, only to discover that this is not the life she seeks. Like "Boyhood", there is no real resolution but simply a coming of age. Céline Sciamma - herself white - both wrote and directed this original view of what it means to be young, uneducated and black in France.