Girls Can't Swim
Encyclopedia
Girls Can's Swim is a French
coming of age
comedy/drama film
. It was first shown at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival.
) 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.
, 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." 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."
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
coming of age
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
comedy/drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
. It was first shown at the 2000 Montreal Film Festival.
Summary
Gwen (Isild Le BescoIsild Le Besco
Isild Le Besco is a French actress and the daughter of Catherine Belkhodja. She is of mixed Breton, Vietnamese, French and Algerian descent....
) 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 TambiénY tu mamá también
Y tu mamá también is a 2001 Mexican comedy-drama film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, and co-written by Cuarón and his brother Carlos. The film is a coming-of-age story about two teenage boys taking a road trip with a woman in her late twenties; it stars Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael García...
, 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." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
's brilliant Fat Girl
Fat Girl
À ma sœur! is a 2001 French film directed by Catherine Breillat and starring Roxane Mesquida. It was released in some English speaking countries under the alternative titles For My Sister or Fat Girl....
from last year), and is too jerky in structure to inspire much empathy from us."
Cast
- Isild Le BescoIsild Le BescoIsild Le Besco is a French actress and the daughter of Catherine Belkhodja. She is of mixed Breton, Vietnamese, French and Algerian descent....
as Gwen - Karen Alyx as Lise
- Pascale BussièresPascale BussièresPascale Bussières is a Canadian actress.- Life and work :She is a cinema studies alumna from Concordia University, living in Montreal.- Movies :- TV Series :*1989: Chambres en ville*1991: Marilyn...
as Céline - Pascal Elso as Alain
- Marie RivièreMarie RivièreMarie Rivière is a French actress. She is one of the preferred actresses of the director Éric Rohmer.From a working class background, Marie Rivière grew up on a housing estate/project in Montreuil before working as a schoolteacher, then as a shop assistant. At 21, having seen L'Amour...
as Anne-Marie - Yelda ReynaudYelda ReynaudYelda Reynaud is a Turkish-Austrian actress.-Filmography:-Television:-External links:...
as Solange - Sandrine BlanckeSandrine BlanckeSandrine Blancke is an actress. She has started her acting career at the age of 13 in the 1991 film Toto le héros.-Selected filmography:* Toto le héros * The Return of Casanova...
as Vivianne - Julien Cottereau as Frédo
- Dominique Lacarrière as Rose