Directed by: François Ozon.
Written By: François Ozon.
Starring: Marine Vacth (Isabelle), Géraldine Pailhas (Sylvie), Frédéric Pierrot (Patrick), Fantin Ravat (Victor), Johan Leysen (Georges), Charlotte Rampling (Alice), Nathalie Richard (Véro), Djedje Apali (Peter), Lucas Prisor (Felix), Laurent Delbecque (Alex), Jeanne Ruff (Claire).
Luis Bunuel’s Belle de
Jour (1967) is one of the best movies of all time – about a young, beautiful
Paris housewife of a rich man who works two afternoons a week at a brothel. It
is an erotic, ambiguous, mysterious and brilliant film – and contains arguably
the best work of the incomparable Catherine Deneuve. Francois Ozon’s Young
& Beautiful is obviously inspired by Bunuel’s film – his protagonist is a
spoiled, 17 year old Parisian girl who becomes an internet call girl, seeing
mainly middle aged or older men until one dies during sex, and the whole mess
comes crashing down around her. The difference between Bunuel’s film and Ozon’s
film is simple – Bunuel understands who his protagonist is, and why she does
what she does. Ozon doesn’t seem to have a clue.
The film is told over
the course of a year – in four parts separated by the seasons. It starts in
summer when Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is on vacation with her mother Sylvie
(Geraldine Pailhas), her stepfather and younger brother. She’s having a summer
romance with a German boy named Felix and the two have a rather sweet date,
that ends with her losing her virginity on the beach. She seems bored by the
experience, and afterwards she is cold towards Felix. When they return to Paris
for the school year, she opens a webpage, and starts seeing men – for hundreds
of Euros a pop.
Why does Isabelle do
this? The movie never explains. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the
movie gave us any indication that Isabelle at least knew why she was doing it.
But Vacth plays Isabelle as almost a complete blank slate. She is gorgeous, but
she never betrays any sort of emotion whatsoever. She doesn’t seem to either
like or dislike the sex. She doesn’t seem to like or dislike much of anything. If
it’s simple boredom that drives her to do it, that would one thing – but I’m
not sure that is it either. There does seem to be some genuine emotion on the
part of the aging Jon who dies during sex – he has seen her before, and is
interested in her as a person, not just as a sex object (although he also sees
her as that as well). She seems to feel some guilt over that – and also some
shame when her mother finds out her secret. That part of the movie that deals
with the fallout of her secret being revealed is the best in the movie – while
Isabelle may be a blank slate, Sylvie isn’t – and her love for her daughter is
mixed with shame, and even a little revulsion. The movie tiptoes towards some
dangerous ground with the relationship between Isabelle and her stepfather, but
quickly retreats to safer ground. The last act of the movie basically resets
itself to the beginning – and suggests the whole thing may just start over
again.
There has been a long history of European – often French – movies that explore the sexuality of teenage girls. Some of these films are brilliant works of art, some are mere exploitation. On the surface, Young & Beautiful seems like one of the more artistic end of the spectrum, but as it moves along, and I started to understand that Ozon wasn’t really interested in really exploring Isabelle as a person, I started to think that it really is more the later. Ozon is a prolific, yet inconsistent director. His last film, In the House, was one of his best. Now comes Young & Beautiful – and I cannot help but think it’s one of his worst.
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