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A Ma Soeur! [2001]
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Anais Reboux's depiction of an introverted young woman is both shocking and true to life, particularly the scene when she swims around a swimming pool kissing and conversing with the pool's diving board and steps as if they were imaginary lovers. The film actually thrives on very little, a simple plot, a 25-minute bedroom scene, and the monotony of the fatal motorway trip home. Like violence itself, the violent ending is a particularly pointless and baffling finale for an otherwise thought-provoking film. On the DVD: A Ma Soeur! on DVD can be viewed with or without English subtitles. The bonus material includes biographies of the leading actors and the director, a theatrical trailer and promotional images from the film. Tom Dawson's excellent notes booklet provide an informed insight into the production of the movie. The anamorphic picture is good, as is the Dolby Stereo soundtrack. --John Galilee Anamorphic Widescreen Language French It’s summertime. Anais and her family holiday by the sea. In this atmosphere, Anais yearns for the experience of first love. However, she experiences it by proxy when her beautiful older sister Elena – whom Anais both loves and hates – gets involved with an older boy. Soon Elena’s naïve hopes of romance will be shattered. Not realising that she has merely become an object of desire, she sets a chain of events in motion that will shatter her family forever…
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Catherine Breillat's A Ma Soeur! is a touchingly honest but also highly disturbing account of two French middle-class teenage sisters' family holiday. As sexually explicit as Breillat's earlier picture, Romance, this film focuses on the travails of flabby 12-year-old Anais Pingot (Anais Reboux), who is the bane and the opposite of her glamorous elder sister Elena (Roxane Mesquida). Constantly having to live in the shadow of Elena and being nagged by her workaholic father (Romain Goupil), lonely Anais resorts to eating and her imagination for pleasure. Her 15-year-old sister, in contrast, is desperate to find romantic love. Their differences are harshly exposed when Elena starts a frantic affair with Italian law student Fernando (Libero De Rienzo). To minimise the risk of being discovered by their parents, Anais accompanies Fernando and Elena throughout their clumsy encounters. She's even present during the pair's sexual experimentation.
Editorial
DVD Description
DVD Special features
Star and director filmographies
Scene selection
Tom Dawson film notes
Original theatrical trailer
World cinema trailer reel
Subtitles English
Editorial
Synopsis
Take two very naive, very young French girls--one a thin 15-year-old, Elena (Roxane Mesquida), and the other her fat 12-year-old sister, Anais (Anais Reboux). Picture them as lambs. Add a manipulative older Italian boy, Fernando (Libero De Rienzo). Picture him as the wolf. Witness from close range as the one of the lambs (the thin one) is devoured by the wolf as the other lamb (the fat one) watches in pain but does nothing. The result is A MA SOEUR!, Catherine Breillat's intense, perplexing, suffocating, grim, terrifying, sickening, dark, plotting depiction of teenage loss of innocence. "Sinister" is what the Italian boy calls what he does to the French girl. "Proof of love" is how the thin girl justifies it. The fat girl, Anais, responds by sitting on the beach in her new dress and letting the surf wash up on her as she softly sings sad songs about boredom and death. Later, staring into the mirror, alone together, eye to eye, cheek to cheek, unblinking, the fat and thin sisters calmly share their most hateful feelings for each other. But nothing prepares the viewer for the final blow of the film, which sneaks up with a ferocity that pales the wolf-lamb scenario. Not a pretty picture, Breillat's shockingly realistic work features a fruity color scheme and an optimistic soundtrack that perfects the film's intended confusion of mood and message.
Editorial
From the Back Cover
Anais is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her body is both a fortress and the citadel for her pain. Huddled safely alone, and forgotten by others, she has long been an observer.
One of the better films of this genre
Review date: 2008-07-13 Rating: 6 out of 10
Title was probably not the best in the world (Rendered into English as "Fat girl" but the film is certainly not as bad as the title may suggest.
2 teenage girls go on holiday to their summer house with mum and dad. One a girl who knows herself to be attractive and the other a chubby girl, out of place and out of step with her older sister. The older sister has all but embraced adulthood while the younger one still clings to her childhood. The older sister dresses like a typical teenage girl while the younger is plain and shabbily dressed.
In no time at all the older sister meets a young man who has his own car, speaks a couple of languages and obviously has a bit of money to throw about. The 2 begin a relationship with the younger sister dragging along behind which eventually leads to the older sister sleeping with her new found boyfriend.
Without going into too much detail of the plot it is an exploration of coming of age, first sexual encounters and the consequences. In this the film is fairly realistic in how it examines this. The boy using whatever means he can to get what he wants, the naive younger girl who thinks herself far more grown up than she really is and our 'fat girl' left at the side.
While some have mentioned they found the sex scene uncomfortable (the actress obviously was a lot older) It does go on probably more than is really necessary the film does however explore to some extent her own personal emotions both towards herself and her older sister. What does concern me however was just how old was the younger sister when this film was made?
The ending while shocking has almost nothing to do with the actual film and quite why the director chose to end the film in this way is anyone's guess. Maybe he just wanted the extra shock value.
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Reviews
Great idea, but could've been much better
Review date: 2008-03-12 Rating: 6 out of 10
After watching A Ma Soeur, I was left feeling very disappointed.
The film follows 12 year old Anais & her 15 year old sister Elena. While Elena is pretty & naive Anais seems more intelligent but plain in contrast. The girls are holidaying with their family in France.
When Elena begins a relationship with an Italian law student the families world is turned upside down.
The idea of A Ma Soeur is a whole lot better than the actual film, I mean it could've been great, but it wasn't.
In my personal opinion the best part of A Ma Soeur is the relationship between the two sisters, it is portrayed so realistically & beautifully.
Like most other reviewers i was disappointed with the ending, but saying it was pointless is ridiculous because one could argue about the pointlessness to anything.
I n conclusion I would recomend A Ma Soeur, but I would advise people not to get their hopes too high & expect a top class film, because it certainly isn't.
Demoralising and saddening story of teenage fantasy
Review date: 2008-01-23 Rating: 4 out of 10
I don't hold grudge against graphic and disturbing 'arts' and personally with no high moral standard, I find the movie distasteful as it depiction of two sisters holiday experience in this small coastal town in France. It is opened by a dialogs between two sisters on the view on sex. While the sex scene is graphic and mildly disturbing from two under-aged actresses, the story centered around teenage yearning for love and desires.
The two sisters are in stark contrasts of each other, the older one pretty, slim, the younger one ugly and fat, what they have share in common is youthful anger and resentment, while the older shows more of untamed bossiness and lousy manner. In this respect, A ma soeur nevertheless offer a good depiction of teenager's longeing and curiosity of sex .
The reconciliation and confession of two sisters added another layers to their character yet it is failed to rescued the movie from generally weak filming and script, and perhaps ironically, it only resonated the sudden and deadly sad ending.
It reminds me of Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen on similar theme, only much better.
A POLISHED FILM
Review date: 2007-08-08 Rating: 8 out of 10
Director Breillat is back and, as she did with "Romance", pushing the bounds of censorship in an intellectually challenging fashion. The story follows the sexual development of two sisters in their early teens. Their middle class family embody the usual social mores and protective attitudes. Moreover, the story makes us aware of the legal dilemma of under age sex, undertaken as a matter of conscious choice and with proper protection by the 15-year old (older) sister with a boyfriend only a few years her senior (ie the relationship would be legal in Netherlands but not in many countries, including France). These are two fairly "normal" sisters, although the younger one is excessively overweight and only fantasizes about getting a boyfriend. There is some possible interpretation that the 15-year old's psychological development would progress more soundly were she not (initially) fettered by taboos over her own virginity. In one scene, a TV in the background has a Breillat-type character being interviewed and giving her philosophy about the intrinsic nature of sex, how it is something common to us all and that can be understood by anyone, and that we are all alike inasmuch as no-one is perfect. The characters and scenes are painted brilliantly, the sibling rivalry coupled with intense sisterly bonding, the mother driving at night and, as many people will have, with a lack of sleep and so not as perfectly safely as normal. It is the realism and ordinariness of the situations that keep us on the edge of our seats. The dialogue has the realism that suggests youngsters may have suggested some of the lines, with their observations that have the power to startle us out of complacency. The use of actors so young in fairly explicit scenes will be a matter of great concern, but Breillat is serious about her work and convinces us that she is not pandering to sensationalism but raising valid questions about how we effectively handle the challenges presented by precocious adolescents. The film is more polished than Breillat's earlier work and has an unnerving denouement, well-delivered.
BBFC Vandalism of great cinema continues...
Review date: 2007-01-12 Rating: 6 out of 10
Up until watching a ma souer the work of Catherine Breillat has never truly delivered what I'd hoped it would. Her films have always, for me, seemed to reek of pretence, of self-importance, a simulacra of intelligence. Always promoting sensationalism over and above their, seemingly, vacuous content.
A ma soeur has changed my view of her work. Brilliant. Superb. Understated. Honest. Beautiful.
For me this film WAS about the nature of consent. Of ones willingness to consent and the many ways in which ones own consent may be manipulated and contrived. Under close inspection the film presents two rapes. In one instance a child consents, under the manipulation of her lover to a statuatory rape, she desires love, in offering what she believes is love in her naivety, she in fact becomes a victim. The second rape, cut by the BBFC, is consensual. She does not desire love and in a way, avoids becoming a victim. Had one been able to see the film pre-bbfc barbarism one way have a different view however. Thank you censorship for once again denying the freedom of interpretation and helping to maintain ignorance and a lack of clarity.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Anais Reboux
Romain Goupil
Roxane Mesquida
Arsinee Khanjian
Laura Betti
Creators:
Anais Reboux (Primary Contributor)
Roxane Mesquida (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Tartan Video
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
EAN: 5023965337221
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-06-24
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Running time: 82 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Original Language)