Brief Crossing

"Brief Crossing" is a coming of age story about a young woman named Lucie who is searching for her own identity and sexual awakening. During a ferry ride, she meets a handsome stranger named Mathieu, and the two of them begin a brief love affair. Lucie, who is engaged to be married, is initially drawn to Mathieu because of his free-spirited and carefree attitude, but as their relationship deepens, she realizes that he is not who he seems and is actually hiding a dark secret. The film explores the complexities of desire, love, and sexuality, as Lucie learns to reconcile her own desires with her responsibilities and obligations to others. *spoiler part* Mathieu is revealed to be a drug dealer and is traveling with a large quantity of illegal drugs. This realization brings Lucie's infatuation with him to an abrupt end and forces her to face the realities of his dangerous and criminal lifestyle. The film ends with Lucie returning home, having gained a deeper understanding of herself and the complexities of love and desire. *spoiler part* Whether a movie is worth watching is a matter of personal opinion. Some people may enjoy "Brief Crossing" for its exploration of love, desire, and sexuality, while others may not be interested in these themes or may not enjoy the film's style. If you are a fan of coming of age stories or French cinema, or if you are interested in films that deal with complex themes and emotions, then you may find "Brief Crossing" to be a film worth watching. However, if these themes or styles do not interest you, then you may not enjoy the film.

Why is it in the twilight of cinema only the French can produce masterpieces? This is the first Catherine Breillat movie that I've seen. I'll be on the lookout for them from now on. This ranks with the masterpieces of the French cinema. It is Truffaut (youthful innocence), Godard(ballet of camera movement with independent activities in foreground and background and Blier (absurdity, realism and sex) all rolled together. This is the human spirit revealed. It is erotic, at least it is a study in erotic passion, but it is as far from * as film gets. Sarah Pratt's acting is superb. I hope she won a caesar for this.

I am a long time fan of Breillat. I can think of no other artist in the cinema who gets sexual truth on to the screen in anything like her league. I think that is why she is often criticised for being closer to * than art; there is graphic truth and artistic truth in her work and she fears neither. There are always characters who are young and feral in her work, and eros is never far from age and thanatos, in a Freudain sense. So often in her films have I identified with all those themes. Sex as a kind of blood-and-power sense of struggle is more often a masculine conception, such as in the work of Bataille, and typically women civilise this out of men in my experience. Breillat seems to understand the male side profoundly better than most men, and here is the strength of her work: she tells men about women from the viewpoint of her women, who can inhabit the skin of male desire in an extraordinary way, but not so as to civilise it. So here we have Catherine B. filming ugly exteriors and interiors with a masculine eye, unconcerned by brute spaces, bad lighting, garish interiors and a brief romanticism of dance and waves. We are not sure who is seducing whom. We can feel the boy's teenage heat. I remember. I now know women who believe they are in mid-life decay who might be tempted to be mistress, mother, big sister and school teacher all at once to a boy, if they could get away with it. Is someone lying, and must this always be? Catherine whacks us over the head with this , not for the first time, as she brings her film to a close. Life goes on and nothing's closed, just snapped and broken and shoots again will come. I'll remember the ending more than any other more predictable ending, but critically, I think that is because Catherine cheated me a bit, and created narrative lies. I don't mind though. I'll still go back to her when I need a harsh lesson about sex and love. Seduction as destruction and reconstruction, as nature's femininely mythologised spirit envelops and endures. The performances are fantastic, and again that must be testament to Breillat's talent, as she does these two actor pieces so well in her work.

The other day, I was telling my friend about a couple of films that I've seen directed by Catherine Breillat (Romance and Anatomy of hell) and how they've really opened my eyes to French cinema. My friend then lent me a DVD, which was "Brief Crossing" and I put it in, holding my breath to see what else Breillat could offer. Most of the comments on the board have already outlined what happens in the movie, so I won't comment too much on the storyline. However, the movie had left me so intrigued and inspired, I also watched the extra features and the short interview with the director. Her explanations of the film have opened my eyes more to the film and it's meanings. The question of who is seducing whom... is an interesting concept. In one way, we see Thomas attempting to act like a man to appear more attractive to Alice. He continually rebuts her condemnations of men being all bad and evil and reminds her that he is not like that. And she, at the same time, continues to appear to reject his subtle advances, speaking ill of men, as if she could predict exactly what his thoughts and intentions would eventually be. I think there are many interpretations of this film. Some find it a love story of sorts, while others thought it was an interesting brief fling between two people who just wanted to get it on. I had a slightly different one. In fact, I had little sympathy for Alice and her little ways. It seemed as though she was merely bored and longed for a little excitement in her married life. And so she, the experienced one, sets out her trap to capture the innocent, virgin Thomas. Every line that she spoke, was merely a reverse psychological tactic to attract Thomas. And attract him, it did. "Don't be like the other men..." And he, "I'm not like the others". Her false objections to them sleeping together, only made him want to sleep with her more. And she clearly was aware of that. Although Catherine Breillat is a feminist director, in some ways, this movie was also very anti-feminist. Unless, her intention was to show that women are highly capable of being the manipulators that they are to get what they want. She claims it is an exploration of a woman's sexual fantasy- I guess most women want to sleep with younger men, but this borders on sexual predatoriness (And yes, I made that word up). Breillat notes in her interview that Alice's deception clearly gives Thomas the opportunity to finally become a man. To accept the disappointment and to be realistic about romance- because he clearly thought their brief fling might possibly develop into a relationship of some sort. He'll probably grow up to be a total a**hole because of this experience too. (in my humble opinion) Overall, this movie was a fantastic experience and there is much to discuss if you've watched it with your friends.

I almost gave this one a miss having seen a couple of Breillat films that were virtually hardcore * with mainstream actors - Francois Berleand, Amira Casar - and been underwhelmed. However, compared to things like Romance and Anatomy Of Hell, Breve Traversee is Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm. Okay, there is a sexual encounter and yes, it is fairly graphic but no more so than stuff we can on TV nowadays. Breillat takes a lot of time building up to the encounter, giving us time to get to know and perhaps like and/or empathise with one or both protagonist. It's fairly basic; a channel crossing, two people travelling alone, a chance meeting, then a second one, an evening spent together over a meal and a couple of drinks, mutual attraction growing subtly - not a word I thought I'd ever use in the same sentence as Breillat - stronger until the inevitable coupling in the cabin setting up an ending as poignant as that in its almost namesake Brief Encounter. In sum: the finest work I've seen from Breillat.

"Roastbeef. No chips". Something commonplace like this marks the beginning of a short relation between a woman and a young boy. A woman, who lost all her illusions about love and marriage. A young boy, attractive for the woman because he still is naive and innocent. It is especially the role played by Sarah Pratt that puts this film on a high level. Returning to the trivial roastbeef-and-chips-scène at the beginning of the film: the way Pratt argues with the waiter: "I don't want them!". That's great acting. With simple means and with only two persons that really make this film Catherine Breillat has done very good directors work. Placed in the chilly décor of a ferry boat two people attract each other and have something - something what? You can't really call it a love affair. What they do have together during the few hours of the boat trip looks tense, reliable and sometimes moving.

Hi, i saw "Brève Traversée" for the first time on ARTE If you don't have seen this movie yet, i really recommend it ! The actors are really good and , little by little, you get into it really easly and nicely. there's a lot of emotions between this boy young boy and the women . you reconize yourself easly in one of those two . I really enjoy it and again, i recommend to see this GREAT movie MAXIME - Vanves 92 - France

I've never seen a Catherine Breillat movie until this one was broadcasted. People tend to say that what she makes is pornographic, but it is so much more than that. Even during the sex-scene's there's a lot of talking going on. Sarah Pratt as Alice reminds me of Isabelle Huppert, a bit cold and distant, but she and Gilles Guillain did a great job in acting. Overall a very good movie shot on a low budget!

After watching "Romance" and "The Anatomy of Hell", I felt like I had reason enough to believe, Catherine Breillat prioritizes sex and depressing visuals so much, the subtle things she tries to prove take backseat. But after watching Brief Crossing, my conception underwent a drastic polarity shift. Thomas is a 16 year old seemingly typical French boy. Alice is probably British, and is around 30. Looks like she had a lot of dimensions to her that she lost from a years long slow heartbreak. Thomas thinks the usual social institutions like boyfriend-girlfriend relationships can't inhibit the French from satisfying their carnal needs any longer. Seems like he does not readily realize the gravity of what he says. Sometimes, when a child is born in a battlefield and brought up in the neighbourhood, he looks at wars with the eyes of an innocent. He sees deaths, but does not realize what it is that seems so obvious like the sun and the moon. One day, a bullet hits him and the next moment, he is not innocent any more. Brief crossing is one such crossing. Crossing from sight to comprehension. Crossing from ideas of pain to pain itself. Crossing from Innocence to Awareness. Brief Crossing, like a few others of its kind like "The Man from Earth" or "Broken English", depends solely on a few people's expressions. Not even an extra penny has been spent on refining anything that is not totally essential to help the movie reach its end. Of course it's not for everyone to watch. But those who like it once, will not forget it ere long. Not recommended for general viewers or cinegoers. Highly recommended for "those" few.

Ever wonder what would have happened in on screen meetings between, say, Jean Gabin and Mae West, Shirley Temple and Toshiro Mifune, Mastroianni and Louise Brooks? Here, it could be said, the character played by the young Jean-Pierre Léaud in a variety of films meets an atypically voluptuous Mike Leigh female, a bilingual one, with better French, and English for that matter, than that of Grace Elliot in Rohmer's recent and wondrous "L'Anglaise..." A sadly trivial approach to a film whose complexities I love, but several months have elapsed. Details blur. I know the scene in the ship's bar, maybe with a dance floor, was special. An at least slightly appropriate touchpoint for "Brève traversée" might be the Lucie-in-the-park element of "La Femme de l'aviateur," a film I did re-watch and comment recently. My comment there, though, is aimed mostly at any who've already seen it. "Tadpole" would be more of a stretch, maybe an inappropriate one, though it works better here if you take just Neuwirth and forget Weaver.