efffigie
This turned up on Netflix and I watched it mostly because Charlotte Rampling was in it; I'd not just watch Rampling read a phone book, I'd be okay with her just kind of standing around holding one. However, I expected an exploitation flick, and to a certain extent, that's what this is, but not altogether. There is a lot going on in this here Un De Film.Yeah, it's kind of about some drop-dead gorgeous French teenager from a well-off Euro-prog family inexplicably deciding to become a hooker, and the movie makes no effort to explain, in words, why; and that seems to bother a lot of reviewers. I kind of half-watched it until the scene where Isabelle has sex for the first time, and then was really and truly appalled. In my real life, I've had a young woman (not a girlfriend, more of a sister... hard to explain) describe a supposedly consensual experience in exactly these terms: looking at herself, it wasn't happening to her, etc. and in real life she was unable to explain to me WHY she found the experience so devastating. She insisted the encounter was consensual and absolutely not the guy's fault. But she clearly suffered a deeply traumatic experience, and it did affect her in a very, very serious way. I asked her about after a time and how she felt, and she answered with the following declaration, with a grim facial expression: "It doesn't matter, what's one f*** more or less." And then continued in sexual behavior that clearly she was unhappy with. To say I was horrified is a gross understatement. So I've dealt with a very similar situation. My take is that some people, regardless of biological status or physical age, simply do not have the emotional maturity to have truly consensual sex with another person at certain stages. Not everyone really matures at identical rates; and after a number of years of thinking, it seems to me that some people engage in sex because they feel it to be a societal norm, and if they don't, they feel they're not 'normal'. The woman, too, in real life, was a knock-out; an extremely beautiful woman, so much so it was a pain to do social things with her due to the constant advances she'd get. Men (and some women) would just lose their minds. She was also European, from that Euro-prog environment depicted in this movie.When Isabelle accepts the offer of money-for-sex, did it occur to anyone it might be a (traumatic) response to the knowledge she's expected to engage in sex due to her society, but doesn't enjoy the 'act' at all, or at least with another person? And that the money (which is shown as not really about the money) serves as symbolic compensation for a socially- expected act she finds demeaning, shaming, and humiliating? The money then acts as a kind of 'control': SHE is in charge, SHE decides who she has sex with, SHE controls the set-up of the situation. The one episode of 'bad sex' she has, isn't an assault or rape but the john not paying her properly, and she is shown having an angry tantrum. Like the little kid she really is, inside.Seeing it this way, the mother leaving condoms out for her, encouraging her to have 'normal' sex with 'nice boys', is gross and appalling: how is the mother not just pimping Isabelle out, herself? Inviting these boys to the dinner table, into their house? Into the family? Why doesn't she just invite one of Isabelle's johns while she's at it? The question of, "Why would you have sex for money?" is then morphed in Isabelle's mind into, "Why would any woman have sex for free?" The party scene would have been much clearer if, like the apartment in FIGHT CLUB with the furniture, there had been little pop-ups from Isabelle's mind pricing out all the fumbling sexual behavior she sees... before she leaves the party in obvious disgust. To meet a 'nice boy' she refuses to have sex with, or at least not right away. All I can say is, I half-agree with the reviewer from Turkey, about the indictment of 'vapid Western culture', insofar as it's my firm belief that no single culture is one-size-fits-all. Some women are perfectly fine with a culture of open, early, sexuality; some women are just not. And that social expectations are an extremely powerful thing that can really damage people very badly. I hated the depicted, so-called 'parents' in this movie: what a pack of insipid, clueless fools, stuffing their 'free' value system down the throat of their own daughter, who can't cope with it. About the only character that really came across well was the younger brother. Oh: Charlotte Rampling was smashing.
bjarias
As truly beautiful as she might be, it is not enough just to watch her on screen for ninety-five minutes, looking forlorn and pretty much totally bored.. (as were most all of us) for most of the entire time. With a better script and directing, it maybe would have amounted to something more than just a gorgeous teenager working as a high-end call girl. She does appear to have the acting talent (along with that amazing allure), but it'll have to be proved in another work. The rest of the cast is solid, and production values are good. It all boils down to a very thin storyline, with the one big question that never really gets close to being answered. Otherwise, a good portion of beautiful females out there would be selling themselves for no particular reason.
jcnsoflorida
Nytimes describes director Ozon's oeuvre as uneven and, while I agree, this is one of his better outings. It's slowish and without much drama but I believe all that's intentional. One of the many fascinating things about Jeune & jolie, for me, is how clearly it is not aimed at American auds, who would certainly expect more drama from the material Almost comically absent from J & j is antihero Isabelle's school life. She attends a good Paris secondary school but we never see her study. Maybe she doesn't need to. In any case, the film is obviously not about her formal education. Others have mentioned Belle de Jour. Yes! B j (the film) is almost 50 years old, so why not another take? Look at how they are alike and different. No surrealism in this latter-day version but the languidness is purposeful. Why? Ozon wrote and directed, and if we put aside our expectations and constantly wonder why he makes the choices he makes here, we won't get many answers. But we do have an understated film --IsaBelle de Jour?-- that is not easy to dismiss. Underrated, too.
