Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.
Is there such a thing as strictly feminine cinema? Is it more difficult for a woman than for a man to direct a film? Is gender parity necessary in the industry? Actress and producer Julie GAYET and actor and director Mathieu BUSSON ask these questions to twenty French woman filmmakers, who face a camera together for the first time. After over an hour of lively, informal, spontaneous and funny interviews, it becomes obvious that these issues are still problematic and definitely worthy of a documentary. As Mia HANSEN-LØVE remarks, “In the eyes of the people, a woman’s film is always a woman’s film, while a man’s movie is simply… a movie”.
Les cinéphiles
“I can’t remember the last time a guy got vulgar with me. When was the last time a guy did that thing… you know, with his lips, like damn girl, you’re hot. Of course I used to hate it. But Lady, c’mon, that’s a whole other ballgame! The little prick called me Lady.”
Isa Willinger explores Kira Muratova’s claim that “women make the tougher films,” meeting directors like Amirpour, Breillat, Ducournau, and Sciamma, who reveal how female filmmakers expose power, violence, and desire, questioning where women and men truly stand today.
Esprit critique
