More often than not,when a cinephile turns to the arthouse for entertainment,he or she is surprised to find a plethora of exploitative imagery and transgressive subject matter,often handled in less than discreet fashion.Such is the case with author and first time director,Catherine Breillat's 1976 entry about the sexual coming of age of an over-developed fourteen year old girl on summer holiday with her parents.The controversial artist deals with the material in ultra-realistic portrayals,often crossing over into the realm of Georges Bataille's literary pornography with abstract sexual images emblazoned into the viewer's subconscious.The critics were mixed about the graphic production,which was banned in many places for nearly a quarter century.Most audiences weren't ready to stare directly at a vulva displayed on the big screen,methinks.Fille,translated to "A Real Young Girl" in English,achieves cinematic weirdness fairly easily,but fails to evoke any substantial emotion,really.It's too weird to succeed as a drama,lacking of enough eroticism to work as sex film,and not funny enough to be labelled a comedy.If you go in with hopes of being weirded out(slightly)and little else,you might revel in the film's odd streak.Young vixen Charlotte Alexandra's ample wares are always at least partially on display within,but never free of the awkwardness that comes with going through puberty in the public's watchful eye.Yeah,that sounds about right.For Crispin Glover-esque odd birds and the most discerning of cerebral perverts only.
You're just sayin' such things to impress me,baby...
Alice(Charlotte Alexandra) is an introverted,derisive fourteen year old girl returning home via train from a French boarding school for the summer.Becoming bored almost instaneously and curious about her newly pendulous hamurabbies and nether regions,she shows an affinity for yanking down her drawers and sitting spreadeagle in a field and remembers that magical time at school she locked herself in a bathroom stall after hours and pissed all over the floor,playing with her feet in it.Alice also rides around town on her bicycle,flashing her knickers at anybody half interested in a peek.The quirky,moody teen keeps a journal,when she isn't out introducing her nubile young body to tactile sensations with some broken eggs,hot dripped candle wax,freshly picked ear wax,her own vomit,urine,and blood,or simply buggering her own asshole with a sun tan oil bottle.She also spends inordinate amounts of time staring at pop stars on television,and at her father's new hire at the sawmill,Jim(Hiram Keller),who's got enough of a steady flow of quim on a silver platter at the local carnival to pay much mind to the foolish young girl,who fantasizes about being bound spreadeagle to the ground by barbed wire while her male obsession tries to force a live earthworm into her pussy.When he can't achieve penetration with the segmented megadrile,he breaks it into writhing pieces and places them on her pubic mound instead.Gee,I hope it doesn't turn weird at all...
Nothing symbolizes a growing girl's aching loins like a decaying dog corpse washed up on the beach.
With Jim uninterested,Alice flirts with a gang of rockers at a local bar,only to have the leader later chase her down on his motorcycle to pull her dress up so that he can get a glimpse of that which all men constantly strive for.Eager to do some more flirting,she rides a tilt a whirl with a businessman who breaks out his custard cannon to show her as they spin at high speeds.When she gets home,she goes over to kiss her father who's been watching television,only to find he's got his fly down and his little French cazzo out.She flashes her goodies at Jim,who accompanies her to the beach where they masturbate in unison in front of one another.Jim unloads his salty suzie in his mitt,then wipes it on Alice's dress,with the girl bitter that conventional coitus wasn't happening next.She verbally spars with her mother after discovering her father's infidelity to his wife,and while both parents scrap it out,she's heavily pressured by a suddenly very interested Jim to give her virginity to him.Before he can take the girl's virginity though,he is shot by one of her father's shotgun traps rigged to keep interlopers out of his garden,and dies.Alice is unfazed by Jim's death,and more concerned for her impending return to boarding school,instead.That's it.
If squirmin' earthworm sections placed on your mons pubis turn you on,get yourself evaluated,for real.
Breillat's entire film catalogue that followed tonight's entry all showcase explicit sex and violence,so it's no wonder the best-selling novelist scored herself a position as cinema professor at the Euro Grad School? Just wow.The gorgeous Alexandra worked with cult director Walerian Borowczyk on his Immoral Tales two years earlier,her final film work coming the following year opposite Sylvia Kristel in Goodbye Emmanuelle(1977).The soundtrack was provided by the late Mort Shuman,who wrote the melodies for American rock n' roll hits like Viva Las Vegas and Marie's the Name(of His Latest Flame)for Elvis,Turn Me Loose for Fabian,and A Teenager in Love for Dion prior to his score work in France.If strange high brow pornography is your bag,you'll probably want to get your hands on Fille,which was finally made available in an unexpurgated version in 1999.Rest assured though,it's a weird ninety-three minutes.On the ratings scale,Fille flashes its panties to the Emperor,who holds up two wops in return.
Now that's an English subtitle if I've ever seen one.
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