I can't say I LOVED my experience with it, but I think it's very well made and its dynamics have a lot to say. I have some ideas orbiting my mind that give me a tacit trajectory on this movie's themes. I wrote a bunch about it, but none of it was specific or well articulated enough for me to want to share all of it, so this is the short version.

Definitely feels like a movie standing up and saying "fuck you" as loudly as it can. All its components are made with hammering at transgression according to whatever social climate France had during this time period. It definitely endures most of its qualities though!

It paints a very specific picture in relation to age and sexual desires. There's some level of arrested development happening on the social roles level. She seems to not have fully aligned with the chaste part of it, which the movie leverages to create its discomfort. It's like we're seeing one half of the juxtaposition the movie is using to finish its realizations about gendered sexuality. We need not see the first half because we've experienced it firsthand in our own lives.

In the particular spot Alice finds herself in, she explicitly rejects the sexual advances the men in the movie make towards her, calling it disgusting. There's an interesting quote in the movie, "Disgust makes me lucid". She almost seems to get lost in the fantasy when disgust doesn't get in the way. In this way, disgust is positioned in relation to conventional sexuality, or male sexuality. Her detachment seems to stem from the lack of success in her social life, and school life. In this sense, she does this to dull her mind, to escape from reality. In the end, when Jim gets shot, she immediately returns to sexuality, to find solace. In this way, it becomes primarily a character portrait.

That chicken didn't need to die though :(
Also my poor ears, this movie's audio is excruciating at times!!!

I can't say I LOVED my experience with it, but I think it's very well made and its dynamics have a lot to say. I have some ideas orbiting my mind that give me a tacit trajectory on this movie's themes. I wrote a bunch about it, but none of it was specific or well articulated enough for me to want to share all of it, so this is the short version.

Definitely feels like a movie standing up and saying "fuck you" as loudly as it can. All its components are made with hammering at transgression according to whatever social climate France had during this time period. It definitely endures most of its qualities though!

It paints a very specific picture in relation to age and sexual desires. There's some level of arrested development happening on the social roles level. She seems to not have fully aligned with the chaste part of it, which the movie leverages to create its discomfort. It's like we're seeing one half of the juxtaposition the movie is using to finish its realizations about gendered sexuality. We need not see the first half because we've experienced it firsthand in our own lives.

In the particular spot Alice finds herself in, she explicitly rejects the sexual advances the men in the movie make towards her, calling it disgusting. There's an interesting quote in the movie, "Disgust makes me lucid". She almost seems to get lost in the fantasy when disgust doesn't get in the way. In this way, disgust is positioned in relation to conventional sexuality, or male sexuality. Her detachment seems to stem from the lack of success in her social life, and school life. In this sense, she does this to dull her mind, to escape from reality. In the end, when Jim gets shot, she immediately returns to sexuality, to find solace. In this way, it becomes primarily a character portrait.

That chicken didn't need to die though :(
Also my poor ears, this movie's audio is excruciating at times!!!

a breillat pegou todos os pensamentos intrusivos que ela já teve quando era uma adolescente descobrindo sua sexualidade e colocou em um filme… e por mais desconfortável que seja é de se respeitar

a breillat pegou todos os pensamentos intrusivos que ela já teve quando era uma adolescente descobrindo sua sexualidade e colocou em um filme… e por mais desconfortável que seja é de se respeitar

i swear i only watched this because Kristen Stewart likes it

i swear i only watched this because Kristen Stewart likes it

uma estrela e meia porque a imagem é linda e eu tenho uma pinta no mesmo lugar que a Alice, tirando isso, que filme tenebroso, aquela cena da minhoca, O PAI DELA MANO, slk, desprezível

uma estrela e meia porque a imagem é linda e eu tenho uma pinta no mesmo lugar que a Alice, tirando isso, que filme tenebroso, aquela cena da minhoca, O PAI DELA MANO, slk, desprezível

I've no doubt that I'm as far from the target audience of this picture as Breillat intended. With that said, there's something intoxicating about the brutally delicate (or maybe delicately brutal?) manner that she captures the feminine in her movies. This is her debut and it's also seemingly the blueprint from which she expands everything in her later works. There is a throughline of unpasteurized womanhood that all connects back to here like powerlines in the desert.

Finally getting around to Breillat's debut sounds like funny to say, but this really cements her, for me, as a visionary artist that no one will ever replicate. Definitely my favorite of hers to have seen so far, if only because of how mesmerizing the close-ups of Alice's face always were. It's always a pleasure to spend 90 minutes with Breillat's visions.

I've no doubt that I'm as far from the target audience of this picture as Breillat intended. With that said, there's something intoxicating about the brutally delicate (or maybe delicately brutal?) manner that she captures the feminine in her movies. This is her debut and it's also seemingly the blueprint from which she expands everything in her later works. There is a throughline of unpasteurized womanhood that all connects back to here like powerlines in the desert.

Finally getting around to Breillat's debut sounds like funny to say, but this really cements her, for me, as a visionary artist that no one will ever replicate. Definitely my favorite of hers to have seen so far, if only because of how mesmerizing the close-ups of Alice's face always were. It's always a pleasure to spend 90 minutes with Breillat's visions.