Halfway through Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Adèle Haenel turns to Noémie Merlant: “Do you think all lovers feel they’re inventing something?” Haenel’s Héloïse and Merlant’s Marianne have just become lovers: the question comes moments after their lips first met in a secluded stretch of the windswept 18th century French coast they’re stranded in. Heloise is a bride-to-be, waiting to be palmed off by her blue-blooded mother (Valeria Golino) to some affluent suitor in Milan. And Marianne is the painter hired to finish her portrait, which will be used to seal the deal. Merlant does not answer Haenel, but Sciamma lets the question carom off Héloïse’s scarcely furbished mansion, and resurface in a final heart to heart, with the young women now in bed, whispering in the dead of night. It’s the last they’ll ever share. They both know it.
- 12/19/2019
- MUBI
Those who say, "I wish I was young," probably don't remember just how painful being young can be. French female filmmaker Celine Sciamma remembers, and she brings the hopes and pains of early teenagers to the screen in her 2007 directorial debut. Water Lilies is an uncomfortable movie to watch as an adult. Teenagers are sometimes naked and often sexual; two things American try to avoid in our mainstream depictions of 14 and 15 year old girls. However, though Water Lilies is about young female sexuality, the young females are not sexualized. At least, not by Celine Sciamma's camera. It's an important distinction, because the film will be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who remembers their first friends, first loves, first lusts, and the heartbreaks that come from each.
Water Lilies circles around the awakening of two girls from the French suburbs. Anne (Louise Blachere) is a big-boned synchronized swimmer whose weight and clumsiness...
Water Lilies circles around the awakening of two girls from the French suburbs. Anne (Louise Blachere) is a big-boned synchronized swimmer whose weight and clumsiness...
- 12/17/2015
- by Anne Marie
- FilmExperience
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently streaming on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to War Horse, Pariah, & A Separation.
With the Academy Awards eligibility deadline about to hit, three Oscar hopefuls do battle at the box office, including Steven Spielberg‘s latest epic, a gritty indie from Brooklyn, NY, and an Iranian thriller that’s drawing worldwide notice.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s children’s novel and its resulting Broadway hit, Spielberg’s War Horse centers on the bond between a young man and his horse. With its posh pedigree, this drama is looking to win more than audience attention. [Full Review.]
Oscar loves a good war story:
The English Patient (1996) This epic World War II-set romance scored 12 Oscar nominations and took home nine, including honors for writer-director Anthony Minghella and star Juliette Binoche, not to mention Best Picture.
With the Academy Awards eligibility deadline about to hit, three Oscar hopefuls do battle at the box office, including Steven Spielberg‘s latest epic, a gritty indie from Brooklyn, NY, and an Iranian thriller that’s drawing worldwide notice.
Based on Michael Morpurgo’s children’s novel and its resulting Broadway hit, Spielberg’s War Horse centers on the bond between a young man and his horse. With its posh pedigree, this drama is looking to win more than audience attention. [Full Review.]
Oscar loves a good war story:
The English Patient (1996) This epic World War II-set romance scored 12 Oscar nominations and took home nine, including honors for writer-director Anthony Minghella and star Juliette Binoche, not to mention Best Picture.
- 12/29/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Koch Lorber Films
NEW YORK -- This French feature takes a dispassionate look at teenage lesbianism and female rites-of-passage issues. The clinical approach, while short on emotional displays, successfully illustrates the anxiety, worry and cruelty experienced on the road to adulthood.
Water Lilies, by debuting French director Celine Sciamma, should receive good notices at festivals but is probably too introspective and rootless to do much business in theaters stateside. Koch Lorber will release it in the U.S. after its American premiere at New York's New Directors, New Films Festival. The film also will play in the City of Lights, City of Angels festival in April in Los Angeles.
The story by Sciamma revolves around a group of suburban French teenage girls who belong to a synchronized swimming group. Marie (Pauline Acquart) is on the cusp of discovering her sexuality and hangs around the changing rooms hoping to convince the slightly older Floriane (Adele Haenel) to let her join the exhibition team. Floriane has problems of her own: The boy she's dating thinks that she's sexually experienced, but she's really a virgin. Floriane asks Marie to deflower her to disguise this fact, and, in a scene of carefully rendered awkwardness, she does. Soon the relationships between these characters change.
Sciamma delivers a precise piece of cinema. The script is pared down, shots and editing are neat and nothing is extraneous to character or story. She includes few adult characters in the film, and this successfully reflects the often closed world of adolescent relationships. Acquart, Haenel and Louise Blachere -- who plays Marie's tough but devoted best friend -- handle some very difficult sexual subject matter with commitment. Although a little too open-ended to be wholly satisfying, Water Lilies is still an excellent directorial debut.
NEW YORK -- This French feature takes a dispassionate look at teenage lesbianism and female rites-of-passage issues. The clinical approach, while short on emotional displays, successfully illustrates the anxiety, worry and cruelty experienced on the road to adulthood.
Water Lilies, by debuting French director Celine Sciamma, should receive good notices at festivals but is probably too introspective and rootless to do much business in theaters stateside. Koch Lorber will release it in the U.S. after its American premiere at New York's New Directors, New Films Festival. The film also will play in the City of Lights, City of Angels festival in April in Los Angeles.
The story by Sciamma revolves around a group of suburban French teenage girls who belong to a synchronized swimming group. Marie (Pauline Acquart) is on the cusp of discovering her sexuality and hangs around the changing rooms hoping to convince the slightly older Floriane (Adele Haenel) to let her join the exhibition team. Floriane has problems of her own: The boy she's dating thinks that she's sexually experienced, but she's really a virgin. Floriane asks Marie to deflower her to disguise this fact, and, in a scene of carefully rendered awkwardness, she does. Soon the relationships between these characters change.
Sciamma delivers a precise piece of cinema. The script is pared down, shots and editing are neat and nothing is extraneous to character or story. She includes few adult characters in the film, and this successfully reflects the often closed world of adolescent relationships. Acquart, Haenel and Louise Blachere -- who plays Marie's tough but devoted best friend -- handle some very difficult sexual subject matter with commitment. Although a little too open-ended to be wholly satisfying, Water Lilies is still an excellent directorial debut.
- 3/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Koch Lorber Films and Red Envelope Entertainment have acquired all North American rights to the French coming-of-age drama Water Lilies (La Naissance des pieuvres).
Writer-director Celine Sciamma's first film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival de Cannes this May. It follows the romantic trials and tribulations of three teen girls on a synchronized swimming team near Paris. Lilies stars Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachere and Adele Haenel, and was produced by Jerome Dopffer and Benedicte Couvreur.
Koch Lorber plans to screen the film in several U.S. fests before an early 2008 New York release, followed by a national theatrical rollout. Red Envelope parent company Netflix will offer a day-and-date video release with Koch Lorber DVD later next year.
Koch Lorber head Rochard Lorber and Red Envelope head of acquisitions and distribution Liesl Copland negotiated the deal for theatrical, home entertainment, television and digital rights with Film Distribution's Nicolas Brigaud-Robert and Didar Domehri.
Writer-director Celine Sciamma's first film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival de Cannes this May. It follows the romantic trials and tribulations of three teen girls on a synchronized swimming team near Paris. Lilies stars Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachere and Adele Haenel, and was produced by Jerome Dopffer and Benedicte Couvreur.
Koch Lorber plans to screen the film in several U.S. fests before an early 2008 New York release, followed by a national theatrical rollout. Red Envelope parent company Netflix will offer a day-and-date video release with Koch Lorber DVD later next year.
Koch Lorber head Rochard Lorber and Red Envelope head of acquisitions and distribution Liesl Copland negotiated the deal for theatrical, home entertainment, television and digital rights with Film Distribution's Nicolas Brigaud-Robert and Didar Domehri.
- 6/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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