Jeune et Jolie
20/08/17 Filed in: DVD
We popped into a DVD/music store in Peterborough today and I picked up a couple of French films. Jeune et Jolie was one of them and we watched it this afternoon. Translated as Young and Beautiful it follows the life of a 17-year-old woman, who after a less than fulfilling first sexual experience while on holiday, embarks on a life of prostitution. Isabelle, the said young woman, is indeed beautiful, and also enigmatic. What drives her to behave how she does is far from clear, at least until later in the film when she receives counselling, and even then you feel that she hasn't revealed all. What she does reveal is that in an immature way she is treating the whole thing as a kind of game.
In a loving family with her mother and step father, and a younger brother, it's not a question of her needing the money. She is clearly getting a form of fulfilment from her actions, if not from the actual sexual acts. One client, Georges, becomes a bit more than just a customer. An older man, he is kind and one detects that Isabelle actual enjoys being with him. More so than some of the other clients who are much less caring. Her dalliances continue unbeknown to her mother, while she attends the lycée with her close friend, Claire, who thinks that Isabelle is still a virgin. The sexual encounters are filmed to convey the different experiences she encounters, and her associated feelings, without being overly graphic although there is of course a fair amount of nudity.
This double life continues until the day Georges has a heart attack while they're having sex. After a vain attempt to resuscitate him, she runs off, but in due course the police track her down, first visiting her mother at work who is totally disbelieving until confronted with the evidence. As a minor she is treated by the police as a victim, but of course the fall-out at home is much less forgiving. There are some sensitive scenes between her and her mother, who after initial anger is trying to understand why her daughter has done what she has, not greatly helped by Isabelle's taciturn reaction.
Things seem to be regularising when her friend Claire, who has had an upsetting 'first-time' experience with her boyfriend, invites Isabelle to a party. There she meets Alex and after declining to go home with him on their 'first meeting', is later shown helping her inexperienced friend during sex. But after this she unaccountably rejects him, and we see her dig out her old phone SIM and check her texts prior to setting up a rendezvous, embarking once more on her previous life. But when she meets her client a surprise is in store, and this meeting may just be the one that changes her life. It make her realise that she has been immature, and when she awakes after the 'client' has left, one feels that there is now more clarity in her life.
The film received critical acclaim at Cannes in 2013, while elsewhere reviews were more mixed. Most scathing was Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, who said the film was "a very French and very male fantasy". To some extent I agree, but as with many French films, even though the plot was fanciful, I found the portrayal of human emotions compelling and true to life.
Things seem to be regularising when her friend Claire, who has had an upsetting 'first-time' experience with her boyfriend, invites Isabelle to a party. There she meets Alex and after declining to go home with him on their 'first meeting', is later shown helping her inexperienced friend during sex. But after this she unaccountably rejects him, and we see her dig out her old phone SIM and check her texts prior to setting up a rendezvous, embarking once more on her previous life. But when she meets her client a surprise is in store, and this meeting may just be the one that changes her life. It make her realise that she has been immature, and when she awakes after the 'client' has left, one feels that there is now more clarity in her life.
The film received critical acclaim at Cannes in 2013, while elsewhere reviews were more mixed. Most scathing was Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, who said the film was "a very French and very male fantasy". To some extent I agree, but as with many French films, even though the plot was fanciful, I found the portrayal of human emotions compelling and true to life.