BUY TICKETS HERE
Join us at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 6, for director Catherine Breillat’s “Fat Girl,” a portrayal of female adolescent sexuality and the complicated bond between siblings as well as a shocking assertion by the always controversial Breillat that violent oppression exists at the core of male-female relations.
FAT GIRL | 2001 | WRITER-DIRECTOR: Catherine Breillat | WITH: Anais Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo | RUNNING TIME: 1H 26m | IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | UNRATED contains strong sexual content, nudity, vulgar language, brief violence, strong adult themes | PROJECTED in 2K DCP format
Twelve-year-old Anaïs is fat. Her sister, fifteen-year-old Elena, is a beauty. While the girls are on vacation with their parents, Anaïs tags along as Elena explores the dreary seaside town. Elena meets Fernando, an Italian law student; he seduces her with promises of love, and the ever-watchful Anaïs bears witness to the corruption of her sister’s innocence.
“A deliberately troubling film about adolescent female sexuality, Fat Girl can easily be interpreted as a long-overdue riposte to the French coming-of-age movies centered on summertime first loves, such as Eric Rohmer’s beloved Pauline at the Beach. Breillat explores the hypocrisy of a society that weighs down the sexual act with sentimental and moralistic baggage through one summer affair between a beautiful teenager, Elena, and Fernando, the Italian law student who woos her after a chance meeting in a beachside cafe.
“For a clear-eyed view, Breillat has written into the narrative a plump and grumpy younger sister, whose role is to accompany the Lolita-ish teenager throughout the flirtatious escapade. Protected by age and weight, Anaïs dissects the terrible contract by which a teenage girl is allowed to possess beauty and “lose” virginity.
“Naturally, since this is a Breillat film, sex and death are never far apart. There’s unpredictable violence lurking at the movie’s end, just when the audience relaxes, thinking it knows what’s up. From its tranquil beginning to its shocking finish, Fat Girl shows Breillat to be a world-class artist working at the top of her form–even when the lessons of gender, sexuality and social custom may be hard to swallow. Without her, they wouldn’t be available to us at all.” — B. Ruby Rich, The Nation
Tickets are $5 and available at link above. Students use code UMSTUDENT at checkout for free admission (Cane card will be checked at the door).
