À Ma Soeur!
(For My Sister! aka Fat Girl)
Directed by Catherine Breillat.
Starring Anaïs Reboux & Roxane Mesquida.
Just how confronting do you like your art films? Breillat, who has already achieved notoriety from the real-life sex scenes of Romance, now turns to the relationship between sisters and adolescent sexuality. Elena (Mesquida) is 15, aggressive and very aware of her physical attractiveness; her 13 year old sister Anaïs (Reboux) is podgy and indifferent. On a beach resort in Saintonge (north of Bordeaux) they are in each other’s company constantly as they share a room and their parents only let them out of the residence together. Elena calculatedly flirts with the first eligible man she sees, Italian law student Fernando (Libero de Rienzo). This half of the film is quite discomforting to watch. The conversations of the sisters and the lovers, varying between intimacy, manipulation and mutual torment, are so minutely observed that they’re almost embarrassing to witness. The extended seduction scene is shown with an unaverted eye: it is not only very explicit but has uncomfortable plausibility to some inadmirable aspects of human behaviour, Elena’s naïve temptress act and Fernando’s inability to stop himself. However, the sexual theme is definitely inferior to that of the sisters’ relationship. Anaïs, being younger and introverted, is assumed to need Elena’s support; Elena’s determination to prove her sexuality is just one aspect of her desire to differentiate herself from Anaïs and to dominate her. The film’s second half strips away the dynamic structures, climaxing in the random brutality of the conclusion which ironically — even perversely — reinforces the sisters’ psychological interdependence.
This film is barely watchable to start with. I’d nominate it as a Date Film From Hell. However, it’s notable for its simplicity and plausibility in presenting a relationship that is complex and driven to an extreme. After a gap of several days I can say it’s actually worth seeing. Just don’t expect to enjoy yourself.
Guy
