Fat Girl [WS] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Director Catherine Breillat, who courted international controversy with her film Romance, once again pushed the envelope with this disturbing (if somewhat less explicit) look at adolescent sexuality. Anais (Anais Reboux) is a 12-year-old girl with a weight problem and a downbeat disposition growing up in a family which offers her little in the way of understanding and affection. Anais has a typically adolescent love/hate relationship with her slimmer and prettier 15-year-old sister, Elena (Roxane Mesquida); she's at once fascinated by her sister (and the boys who follow her around), and hates her for the love and attention she receives from others. While the family spends the summer at the beach, Elena attracts the attentions of Fernando (Libero de Rienzo), a college student from Italy who makes no secret of his attraction to Elena's budding sexuality. Anais, on the other hand, is forced to make do with a sad game in which she pretends that a ladder and a diving board at a neighborhood swimming pool are two suitors vying for her affections. Anais shares a room with Elena, and finds herself a fascinated, if troubled, witness as Fernando uses both charm and deceit to rob her sister of her virginity, while Elena is too naive to see through the lies Fernando is spinning -- and enjoys having Anais as an audience for her steadily advancing sex play with Fernando. Anais is more aware than her older sister of Fernando's insincerity, but she finds Elena isn't eager to believe her. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: PCM Stereo
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • Two interviews with the director, including a look at the film's alternate ending
  • French and U.S. theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: and essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and an interview with Catherine Breillat from the French film magazine Positif

AWARDS

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2001

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Anais Reboux - Anais
       Roxane Mesquida - Elena
       Libero de Rienzo - Fernando
       Arsinee Khanjian - Mother
       Romain Goupil - Father
       Laura Betti - Fernando's Mother

• Director:

  Catherine Breillat

• Producer:

  Jean-Francois Lepetit

• Screenwriter:

  Catherine Breillat

• Cinematographer:

  Georges Arvanitis

• Editor:

  Pascale Chavance

• Production Designer:

  Françoise-Renaud Labarthe

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Jean Minondo

REVIEW:

• A downbeat tale about the tortures of adolescence, A Ma Soeur! goes well beyond most people's worst childhood experiences. Everybody in Anais' family dumps their problems on her, while constantly reminding her that she's a helpless, chubby girl who can't stop eating. The only halfway decent relationship that she has is with her sister, Elena, who has some affinity with her, even though Elena often degrades her, blames her for her own faults, and is forced to drag her around when she's hunting for men. Director Catherine Breillat expertly captures these awkward years in the dialogue between the two sisters, the sometimes uncomfortable sex scenes, and in Anais' anguished facial expressions. The sex scenes are lengthy, graphic, and portray underage sex, but this sort of stuff is becoming de rigueur for contemporary French cinema. All of the acting is excellent, from Libero de Rienzo's performance as the slimy, Italian college student who shows off to Elena about other girls he's used and then dumped, to Arsinee Khanjian, as the sisters' emotionally unstable, chain-smoking mom, to Anais Reboux's Anais, who seems to have no hope in this world. The ending of the film is certainly controversial with some critics lashing out against it. But undoubtedly this is French cinema at its most fearless, a film one thinks about, discusses, and does not forget. ~ Adam Bregman, Rovi