Water Lilies

Water Lilies is a well-made first film from France about young female sexuality and friendship. Sciamma works with specialized, slightly sanitized material that is as off-putting to some as it is alluring to others. The film focuses exclusively on three middle-class teenage girls in a tidy new Paris suburb. Their lives revolve around a big indoor swimming pool where two of the three are part of a synchronized water ballet team. Such distractions as parents, siblings, work and school have been neatly excised from the equation. The central sensibility belongs to the attractively sullen but skinny Marie (Pauline Acquart), who is not on the team, but thinks she would like to be. Marie worships Floriane (Adèle Haenel), an alluring blonde and team standout whom the boys are after. This takes Marie away from her former best friend, also a member of the water ballet team, the somewhat plump Anne (Louise Blachère). Being less special Anne is more truly accessible to the boys. Floriane, like this film, promises a bit more then she truly offers. Marie has the more essential quality for a teenage girl: she suffers inwardly. Flroiane doesn't so much suffer as jump into situations and then bolt. Marie is dazzled by the glamor of the water ballet as well as Floriane. Floriane takes advantage of this to make Marie first her slave and a cover for her assignations, then, lacking any other friends, her confidante. All the other girls think Floriane a *, an illusion she encourages in the men and boys she teases, because it leads them on. She suffers the pretty girl's fate of being not a person but an object, and she can't resist the validation the boys give her by wanting to kiss her and bed her, but she doesn't really care about any of them and knows her involvements with them are a trap. Enlisting Marie to act as her pal so her (unseen) mother won't know she's going out to meet boys, she also gets Marie to rescue her from the boys later. It looked the opposite at first, but Floriane needs Marie as much as Marie thinks she needs her. Anne is left with her discomfort with her body and a desire to get laid that's earthier and more real than the other girls'. Keeping all external context at bay, Sciamma can highlight subtle shifts in the delicate equation of the three girls' goals and interactions. On the other hand the film's water madness, which includes lots of showering and spitting as well as underwater swimming shots, makes it feel completely airless at times and some of its 95 minutes do not pass so quickly. Luckily the film has a sense of humor and lets the trio sometimes forget their ever-present goals and avoidances and just do silly, pointless girl things. It's the offbeat moments that give the film life; too bad in a way that there aren't more of them. But Sciamma has the courage of her obsessions and what remains as one walks out of the theater is the personalities and their dynamics. Along the way of course it is pleasant to watch the swimming and to gaze at the girls, who understandably love to gaze at themselves. There's no great revelation or drama on the way, but things get a bit more interesting when it emerges that Marie doesn't just admire but truly desires Floriane and is jealous of her boyfriends--whom Floriane always stops before they go all the way. In a typical irony of this kind of plot, Floriane actually decides she wants to have her first real sex with Marie--but Marie is the one who holds off, because she knows it won't have the significance to Floriane that it will have to her. When it happens, it's a timid, mechanical affair. Meanwhile Anne has a huge crush on Francois (Warren Jacquin), a male swimmer, but of course he is after Floriane. Boys are not an element that's been subtracted and there always seem to be several dozen ready at poolside or on the dance floor, but they are just bodies and faces, available studs.

In this swimming pool, this pond, there are water lilies and there are frogs. Frogs sit on water lilies. The frog and water lily have a parasitic relationship. Marie(Pauline Acquart) is a water lily, a synchronized swimming groupie with a crush on Floraine(Adele Haenel), a frog, the captain of her team. Floraine's teammates shun their leader because the preternaturally curvy and well-proportioned blonde conveys a loose persona that betrays the syncrhronized swimmer's mindset of conformity and discipline. But Floraine has a secret; the bombshell has a bombshell, which "Naissance des pieuvres" reveals to the audience, visually, before she confides in Marie. Floraine has never gone, as they say, all the way, with a boy. At a party, we see a double-image of the burgeoning sex bomb checking her make-up in a bathroom mirror. "Lolita" is a fata morgana. Marie gets to know Floraine's double while her imitation breaks the water lily's heart. While the frog goes through the motions of catching flies for appearance's sake, she gets chummy with the water lily when no one's looking. In the film's most startling scene, the water lily agrees to give the frog a hand in losing her virginity through the mechanical act of oral stimulation. Floraine wants boys to like her, but she doesn't like boys, seemingly, but it's more important to the frog that she's popular. When the water lily finally kisses the frog, the frog remains a frog. The frog can't transform into a water lily, or a princess, because the water lily lost the frog's respect. After their lips unlock, Floraine tells Marie, "See, it's easy," which is the frog's way of equating their kiss with the * that her friend gave her as nothing more than a rite-of-passage without any strings attached. Floraine's beauty is a burden. She carries the weight of meeting boy's expectations. Florence uses Marie to have one final fling before her fata morgana subjugates its imitation into the closet. The other water lily, the other frog, Marie's best friend Anne(Louise Blachere) and Floraine's frustrated boy-toy Francois(Warren Jacobs), just like any water lily and frog, have a parasitic relationship, too. While Floraine uses Marie for love, Francois uses Anne for sex. But that's life; that's the treachery of growing up, in which even a friend will turn on a good friend if the opportunity to move up the food chain presents itself. At a McDonalds, the water lily chastises the other water lily after bathing extensively in the frog's afterglow. Physical beauty is a currency. Marie gets to call the shots because Anne, although far from being ugly, is overweight and has an unflattering hairdo. Anne tries to fight back by using her breasts as ample retaliation(the magnifying glass from her Happy Meal incidentally comments on Marie's flat chest), but the tadpole(Marie thinks she's better than Anne, better than a water lily) points out that her breasts are a byproduct of fat. Teenaged girls can be brutal to each other. Later, in the final shot, "Naissance des pieuvres" suggests that Marie has a double, too, and this symbiosis among water lilies has the potential to turn parasitic in the near-future, if it not already has. Teenaged girls can be brutal to each other in a way that no boy could match.

I don't usually write reviews but I felt the need to point out that through out this movie I kept murmuring: "This isn't right", "No!", "Why?", and many things along this line. I'm not trying to imply that this was a bad movie but if you are an American, don't expect this to be something Universal Studios would film. With every next scene I would think: How can they film this? But that may be my American mind. I'll give it a neutral 5 rate, since I'm still unsure how I feel about it.

Not everything is said in this excellent first feature from Céline Sciamma. The friendship, the "wanting to fit in", the first sexual feelings... All this and much more is sublimated through the underwater synchro swimming scenes. All three girls in the movie try to find and express their personality in a very different way. It is a much less violent approach to the understanding of the teenage years compared to, say, "Thirteen", but a very worthwhile trip nonetheless. A must see, and please leave all American cinematographic preconceptions at he door. The soundtrack is A+ by the way. Bon cinéma !

In the areas where they overlap this fine movie is light years ahead of 2004s Innocence, which gave the impression of a rheumy eye and heavy breathing ogling young girls. Here the effect is much more realistic and really gets inside the heads of the three protagonists as they fumble their way through an adolescence riddled with pitfalls. The three principals, all unknown to me give very sure-footed performances, the kind, in fact, that may be so natural that it will be difficult for them to replicate this quality of acting in other films so I wouldn't be too surprised if they are not heard from again. It would be nice if this could get away from the Art Houses and into the Multiplexes where there's just an outside chance it might 'speak' to the bubblegum crowd it isn't aimed at.

Pros: 1. The synchronized swimming scenes are well-choreographed and captivating to watch, especially the underwater scene near the beginning. 2. Adèle Haenel (Floriane) gives a really good performance, but was let down by the script. Cons: 1. The lighting is often really flat, thus making the film visually unappealing. 2. The score, is at times, generic and is often used for cheap emotional manipulation. 3. Marie (Pauline Acquart) has nothing to her character aside from her desperate desire to get with Floriane. This makes it difficult to care about the events taking place. 4. The sub-plot featuring Anne (Louise Blachère) lusting after François (Warren Jacquin) is poorly-developed, needless, and uninteresting. 5. The movie is far too slow-paced, especially considering the lack of content. 6. The social commentary on *-shaming and body positivity is jarringly inserted, and way too blunt. 7. The conflict, particularly between Marie and Anne, is terribly set-up, boring, and forced. 8. The sensual, lesbian-esque, scenes between Pauline Acquart and Adèle Haenel are uncomfortable and slightly disturbing to watch, as Pauline Acquart was 14 years old whereas Adèle Haenel was 18.

Scrawny Marie (Pauline Acquart) and awkward chubby friend Anne (Louise Blachère) are standard outsiders. It's summer and they hang out at the pool watching the synchronized swimmers. Marie befriends beautiful Floriane (Adèle Haenel) who leads the swim team. Floriane is the subject of much gossip. Marie starts hanging out with Floriane putting pressure on her friendship with Anne. Meanwhile Anne is obsessed with hunky François. It's a story of sexual searching and an awkward coming-of-age. There are a few daring scenes. I love when Marie and Anne have a fight. However the plot feels a bit too slight. It's too quiet and the danger is all internal. I want more conflicts. In the end, some stuff happens but they all end up in the same place.

The French invented the film. And made the first films. Which were just a freak show display: boring short scenes demonstrating the new technique. It was a good policy because a 15 minute movie eats up far more film than a trigger happy photographer in the same amount of time. Once the Americans started doing business with the new tool the French had a hard time following. At the start of the 20th century they are into nationalism and cheap romance, but nothing like the Germans. After World War II they start building a glorious virtual history with easy comedy and some drama. Hollywood builds up large productions? They are going to do the same: make a list of stars and use the power of the state to impose quotas on the consumption of imported cultural goods. The New Wave was an attempt to make something. Well polished movies trying the realism mastered by the Italians some decades ago. But that was over in less than two decades. And even with the state restrictions imported movies are far more interesting even when dubbed. So in the 1990s some independent makers started exploiting shock. Sex. Unconventional. Abusive. Usually without consent. Finally 2000s brought the new step into pedophilia. Label it as art. Sell it to an audience of old males. This is a very slow movie about four youngsters. Sex. No family. No relation with the reality of the constricted Catholic society. While the French can spend their holidays with their parents well into their 40s, there is no adult here. Teens in this fairy tale seem to be able to sleep where they please. Some might argue this is some fairy tale so the reality has nothing to do with it. But even the characters are badly drawn. The chubby who is too scared to undress with the other girls at the pool where she trains is bold enough to enter the boys locker room. And deliver a message in front of everyone. And the young boys barely notice her. The relationships are also sketchy. Although it is very important for the final part, the relationship between the boy and the "cheerleader" is barely shown leaving big gaps. Bad script, bad acting, only a vehicle to deliver to a particular audience a scene of young girls masturbating. Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

The original title means "The Birth of the Octopuses". I must confess that I do not quite understand this title. The English title is "Water Lilies". But after having written this, I read the comment by another user: "The title in French is also suggestive: "prieuve", or octopus, suggest an individual having to juggle many pressures simultaneously." Thanks for your explanation. The basic theme is the first sexual emotions of girls, when it is not clear if they are directed toward the same or the other sex. It is no different for boys. I think that both Floriane and Marie will eventually have heterosexual feelings without any admixtures. Much of the movie is water ballet. Sometimes the girls will have their heads downwards, and nothing above the water except their feet and lowers legs, with which they will wave and kick in the air. To people like me who had never seen such things before, it was fascinating. - Floriane is the leader of one team of "water lilies". Marie tells her that she would like to see when Floriane is training. This seems to be their first contact that is not just ordinary. Soon they will walk together. Floriane takes Marie to a garage where a boy is waiting for her, and then goes away with him for an hour, while Marie is waiting for her to return. I took for granted that the couple slept with each other. But we will later learn from the movie that they do less than that. I can supply some information which few users will find elsewhere. There is a scene in which Marie secretly steals Floriane's garbage bag. In it she finds an apple, mostly eaten. And Marie proceeds to eat the rest. – There is a parallel scene in another movie, "Kazetachi no gogo" (Afternoon Breezes) by Hitoshi Yazaki (Japan, 1980). This is about adult young females, and a clearly Lesbian woman is vainly in love with a heterosexual woman. She also steals a garbage bag of the beloved, and also finds a more or less eaten apple and eats the rest. Later Floriane tells Marie that she would like to have her first * from her. Marie says she cannot do this. But still later Marie says that she is indeed willing to do it. And she masturbates on Floriane. There is no nudity in this scene. Probably only a female director could have made such a fine psychological show or study of – I would like to quote Baudelaire, "Les amours enfantines". Floriane is played by Adèle Haenel, who made the excellent performance as the autistic girl in "The Little Devils" by Christophe Ruggia (2002) – a very underrated movie.

These type of movies about young teenagers struggling with their own sexuality were something unique and daring and daring a couple of years ago but more and more movies like this got made over the past few years, making it hard for the movies to still stand out really. Also this movie received little publicity, aside from the usual little film festivals that featured this little French movie, as well as the big festivals that are always fond of these type of little movies about everyday subjects that aren't being handled too often in movies. The film premiered at Cannes in 2007 and actually won some awards there as well. The movie doesn't really stand out from others, since it actually features little new once you've already seen some similar movies such as this one but this however really doesn't mean that "Naissance des pieuvres" is a bad one to watch. The movie is certainly a good watch, that handles its subject well and tells its story steadily and therefore also effectively, in a typical somewhat slow French cinematic pace. It's a coming of age movie, that focus on the life of mainly 3 totally different mid-teenagers. Sexuality is a big theme within the movie, which gets handled delicately and subtle. It makes the movie and its story overall a pretty realistic one, though perhaps a bit predictable, since the movie doesn't quite offer anything original enough within its genre. This type of French movie will probably scare off a lot of people because of the reason that they probably expect it to be very arty, with deep layers and meanings to it. "Naissance des pieuvres" however is a very accessible movie for everyone and you really don't have to be into Euro-teen movies to appreciate this movie. It's a sweet and somewhat sensual kind of movie, due to its subject and visual approach. The movie is also being made realistic by its actors, who don't had and have a lot of experience within the movie business but are authentic looking and feeling within their roles. The strong individual characters provide the movie with some nice themes and good moments. A good movie on its subject. 7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/