Girls Can't Swim
| Girls Can't Swim | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Anne-Sophie Birot |
| Written by |
Anne-Sophie Birot Christophe Honoré |
| Starring |
Isild Le Besco Karen Alyx Pascale Bussières Pascal Elso Marie Rivière Yelda Reynaud Sandrine Blancke Julien Cottereau Dominique Lacarrière |
| Music by | Ernest Chausson |
| Cinematography | Nathalie Durand |
| Editing by | Pascale Chavance |
| Studio | Centre National de la Cinématographie |
| Distributed by | Wellspring (USA) |
| Release dates | 18 October 2000 |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Girls Can't Swim (French: Les filles ne savent pas nager) is a French coming of age comedy/drama film. It was first shown at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival.
Summary
Gwen (Isild Le Besco) is a teenager living in a coastal town in Brittany; Lise (Karen Alyx) is her city-living best friend. They meet up each summer as Lise's family visits. This year's visit is different though - Lise is dealing with her distant father's death, and Gwen has become promiscuous with boys - with the tensions affecting their friendship.
Reception
Stephen Holden of the New York Times said "Girls Can't Swim ultimately lacks the epic dimension of Y Tu Mamá También, but its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition."[1] Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, saying "The phrase "coming of age," when applied to movies, almost always implies sex, but Girls Can't Swim has nothing useful to say about sex (certainly not compared to Catherine Breillat's brilliant Fat Girl from last year), and is too jerky in structure to inspire much empathy from us."[2]
Cast
- Isild Le Besco as Gwen
- Karen Alyx as Lise
- Pascale Bussières as Céline
- Pascal Elso as Alain
- Marie Rivière as Anne-Marie
- Yelda Reynaud as Solange
- Sandrine Blancke as Vivianne
- Julien Cottereau as Frédo
- Dominique Lacarrière as Rose
References
- ↑ Stephen Holden (2002-04-19). "FILM REVIEW; Two Girls and a Boy Swept Away by Themselves". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
- ↑ Roger Ebert (2002-08-09). "Girls Can't Swim". rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2011-02-05.