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Summary
Willy, a middle-aged divorcee, decides to take his 15 year-old son, Thomas, on holiday
to Ibiza, staying at an isolated villa on the unspoilt part of the coast.
Thomas insists on bringing his friend Juliette, a girl of his own age with whom he enjoys
a close platonic relationship. When it comes to physical love, Juliette is wise
beyond her years. She will only sleep with men older than herself and has no intention
of committing herself to a long-term relationship. As the holiday progresses, Juliette
realises that Willy is attracted to her. She confides in Thomas that she will seduce
his father and then reject him, in the hope that she can rid herself of his unwelcome
attentions. Unaware of this subterfuge, Willy is torn between his physical attraction
towards the teenage girl and his love for his son...
Review
La Fille de 15 ans is a subtle yet poignant film which explores the complexity
and brittleness of human relationships - both across and within the generations - with
a rare sensitivity and insight. This is a genuine film d’auteur, a film charged
with sincerity, humanity and uncompromising realism, from a director who specialises in
this kind of work and, in doing so, shows that he is a worthy successor to the more prominent
figures of the French New Wave. Jacques Doillon has yet to win the status accorded
to Truffaut, Rohmer, Rivette, and the like - but, as the film amply demonstrates,
he is a director with a distinctive artistic vision, who manages to capture the poetry
and fragility of human experience in his wondrously understated and eloquent films.
Doillon makes this particular work an especially personal affair by playing one of the
three principal characters in the film. His quiet yet intense portrayal of a solitary
man who cannot contain his desire for a teenage girl, even at the risk of losing his son
forever, is heartbreaking, making this a melancholic and ironic reflection on the many
varied shades of love. Rightly, Doillon keeps his character in the background, like
a lingering shadow, allowing his two younger co-stars to carry most of the drama.
This approach works because Judith Godrèche and Melvil Poupaud both succeed in
portraying interesting and convincing characters with an extraordinary talent.
Godrèche is spell-binding, providing the film with its focal point, and it is hard
for the spectator to reconcile her very visible youth with her maturity as an actress
- Doillon could not have chosen a better young lady to feature in his film.
Melvil Poupaud is no less impressive, again looking far more mature than his actual mid-teens
would suggest. He works perfectly alongside Godrèche, appearing very much
the innocent young Adam to her all-knowing fully-formed Eve. In his first significant
acting part (for which he was nominated for a César in 1990), Poupaud manages to
convey all the hurt, confusion, naivety and rebelliousness that we associate with teenage
boys as they pass through the painful threshold towards adulthood.
Thanks to these three sublime low-key, naturalistic performances, the relationship between
the three characters in this film is so convincing, so intense, that we are compelled
to feel something of their anguish, turmoil and helplessness. This is a film with
great depth and poetry, beautifully photographed and skilfully directed with self-restraint
and intelligence.
© James Travers 2003
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