FirstLoveMovies

En assistant par hasard à un spectacle de natation synchronisée, Marie 15 ans a une véritable épiphanie. Elle développe une obsession pour cette étrange discipline. A moins que ce désir absurde en cache un autre, plus souterrain, pour cette fille, la star des nageuses, Floriane... Dans la solitude de leurs chambres, les filles de 15 ans ne sont pas gracieuses. Elles ne sont pas ce qu'on croit. Surtout quand le désir et l'amour surgissent violemment pour la première fois comme une maladie avec ses étranges symptômes.

abel wrote:Huh, sounds defintely VERY interesting!

Starring Adele Haenel ( of Les Diables) she must be around 17 yo by now, and a younger girl. It's about budding lesbianinnity (or whatever the word is lol)

Water Lilies is intelligent film and has what the recent raft of Australian coming-of-age stories lack: an underlying realism. It seems aimed more at an adult audience and I wonder how a teenage audience would respond to it. Or whether it found a teenage audience in France.

The story revolves around a petite 15-year old, Marie (Pauline Acquart). It involves her friend, Anne (Louise Blachère), a member of a synchronised swimming team, and the captain of the team, Floriane (Adele Haenel). The film is basically a depiction of teenage exploration of sexuality and identity, friendship and love. There are some parallels with American Beauty, though that film could never have gotten away with the teenage nudity in this film. But it's not as gritty as say, a Larry Clark film. Of some note, this film is directed by a woman, Céline Sciamma.

The film completely dispenses with parents, a device of convenience, I suspect, to avoid complicating the film with other issues. The focus is clearly on Marie, her friends and their sexuality and friendship. The cinematography is beautiful and the combination of that and the music remind me of someone I can't recall. It's not unlike Van Sant's recent films in some respects but vastly different in others.

The three main characters were all convincing and the story is well-written. It's another example of a small story that the French are often so good at.

Water Lilies is hands down the best synchronised swimming, teenage lesbian flick of 2008 (so far) but I suspect the praise lavished on this otherwise unremarkable little French coming-of-ager has more to do with firm, wet limbs than anything else.

Admittedly, the internal turmoils of budding adolescence are sensitively refracted through its three convincing female leads: the manipulative team hottie with a slaggy reputation; the flat-chested, self-contained tomboy who confusedly loves her; and said flat-chested girl's tubby best friend, who's desperate to cop off with boys (here largely absent).

Softcore Mini Pops moments aside, the charged, languid atmosphere heaves with more mournful longing than 'action' – as is traditional in lesbian dramas.

At least debut director Céline Sciamma is just as keen to focus on what's going on beneath the swimsuits. And no, not (just) like that.