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Jeune et jolie (2013)95 min|Drama, Romance|25 Apr 20146.7Rating: 6.7 / 10 from 33,880 usersMetascore: 63Director: François Ozon
Creator: François Ozon
Actors: Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot
After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.
Review Young & Beautiful“Young & Beautiful” is the latest effort from writer/director Francois Ozon, and it features his interests in behavioral anomalies and troubling domestic developments. It’s a coming-of-age story with a steep learning curve for its lead character, but there is a sense of understanding that permeates the picture, even when it inspects some rather unsavory bedroom business. Distanced but attentive, “Young & Beautiful” remains an intriguing look at a life derailed, though whether or not all this disturbance is intentional remains a question left up to the viewer, with Ozon providing the pieces of a fracture psyche, not the instruction booklet to put it all together.Turning 17 and still unsure of herself, Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is working her way to the moment of her deflowering, selecting a young German boy to ease her into womanhood. When the experience doesn’t play out as intended, Isabelle is left cold, forced to research her sexuality on her own terms. Selling herself as a prostitute over the internet, Isabelle meets and pleasures a host of clients, learning the ropes of the business as men seek to scam her. One older, married man, Georges (Johan Leysen), shows sensitivity, drawn to Isabelle’s softness and beauty, with some possessive overtones to pique her curiosity. When tragedy strikes during a hotel visit, Isabelle is outed as a prostitute to her family, leaving her mother, Sylvie (Geraldine Pailhas), a wreck, unsure how to question her child about such intimate matters — a problem compounded by her own infidelity issues involving a family friend.
This being Ozon, a notoriously clever storyteller, it’s difficult to believe that “Young & Beautiful” would be just another run-of-the-mill teen melodrama, but that’s the tone selected for the first act of the movie. We meet Isabelle, who’s experimenting with her sexuality during an age when it’s starting to attract attention. She lives an average life of routine with her family, often watching over her little brother, who’s just beginning his journey into puberty. Her fixation is on Felix (Lucas Prisor), an older boy who takes a shine to the French girl. However, such visions of a romantic pairing are dashed as sex on the beach turns out to be a detached event, pushing Isabelle out of her own body as she studies the feral mechanics of intercourse. However, Ozon doesn’t linger on the disillusionment, quickly pushing on to study the aftermath of this crude awakening.
“Young & Beautiful” is divided up into seasonal chapters, with music from Francoise Hardy employed as narration for Isabelle’s journey. The character’s descent into prostitution isn’t underlined at all, instead catching up with Isabelle during her private encounters, where she faces a string of blunt gentlemen in hotel room and cars, some with kinky, aggressive desires. It’s an education for the girl, who learns quickly to accept money up front, and the vocation manages to harden her in unexpected ways. While Georges isn’t all the different from the norm, his soulfulness and confessional attitude manages to connect to Isabelle, making him a special client — a financial union that’s amplified when the teen spies him during a concert she’s attending with her family. Ozon details the sexual encounters with traditional French exposure, but the emotional value remains, watching this teenager experiment and experience with strangers, savoring this secret life as she carries on normally at home and in school (her best friend thinks she’s still a virgin).
The feature takes a turn in its second act, stopping and rewinding Isabelle’s prostitution experience as trouble develops, forcing the girl to retrace her steps and feel her mother’s judgment. Sylvie simply can’t fathom such a personal choice from her daughter, with tentative trust issues and visits to therapy making up the rest of the picture, inspecting the psychological scars that have led to this situation. The performance from Pailhas is nuanced and raw, with Sylvie in a difficult position of condemnation when her daughter is fully aware of her recent bout with infidelity. Scenes where the mother can’t bottle her anxiety due her lack of faith are some of the best in the film. Vacth also retains a special power as the lead character, with Ozon wisely focusing in on her face, keeping the actress insular, which allows her experiences to sink in deeper. Obviously, as a working model, she lives up to the titular promise, but thankfully there’s a performance here that’s responsive to the difficulties and provocations facing the character.
Jeune et jolie (2013)
95 min|Drama, Romance|25 Apr 2014
6.7Rating: 6.7 / 10 from 33,880 usersMetascore: 63
Director: François Ozon
Creator: François Ozon
Actors: Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot
Creator: François Ozon
Actors: Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot
After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.
Review Young & Beautiful
“Young & Beautiful” is the latest effort from writer/director Francois Ozon, and it features his interests in behavioral anomalies and troubling domestic developments. It’s a coming-of-age story with a steep learning curve for its lead character, but there is a sense of understanding that permeates the picture, even when it inspects some rather unsavory bedroom business. Distanced but attentive, “Young & Beautiful” remains an intriguing look at a life derailed, though whether or not all this disturbance is intentional remains a question left up to the viewer, with Ozon providing the pieces of a fracture psyche, not the instruction booklet to put it all together.
Turning 17 and still unsure of herself, Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is working her way to the moment of her deflowering, selecting a young German boy to ease her into womanhood. When the experience doesn’t play out as intended, Isabelle is left cold, forced to research her sexuality on her own terms. Selling herself as a prostitute over the internet, Isabelle meets and pleasures a host of clients, learning the ropes of the business as men seek to scam her. One older, married man, Georges (Johan Leysen), shows sensitivity, drawn to Isabelle’s softness and beauty, with some possessive overtones to pique her curiosity. When tragedy strikes during a hotel visit, Isabelle is outed as a prostitute to her family, leaving her mother, Sylvie (Geraldine Pailhas), a wreck, unsure how to question her child about such intimate matters — a problem compounded by her own infidelity issues involving a family friend.
This being Ozon, a notoriously clever storyteller, it’s difficult to believe that “Young & Beautiful” would be just another run-of-the-mill teen melodrama, but that’s the tone selected for the first act of the movie. We meet Isabelle, who’s experimenting with her sexuality during an age when it’s starting to attract attention. She lives an average life of routine with her family, often watching over her little brother, who’s just beginning his journey into puberty. Her fixation is on Felix (Lucas Prisor), an older boy who takes a shine to the French girl. However, such visions of a romantic pairing are dashed as sex on the beach turns out to be a detached event, pushing Isabelle out of her own body as she studies the feral mechanics of intercourse. However, Ozon doesn’t linger on the disillusionment, quickly pushing on to study the aftermath of this crude awakening.
“Young & Beautiful” is divided up into seasonal chapters, with music from Francoise Hardy employed as narration for Isabelle’s journey. The character’s descent into prostitution isn’t underlined at all, instead catching up with Isabelle during her private encounters, where she faces a string of blunt gentlemen in hotel room and cars, some with kinky, aggressive desires. It’s an education for the girl, who learns quickly to accept money up front, and the vocation manages to harden her in unexpected ways. While Georges isn’t all the different from the norm, his soulfulness and confessional attitude manages to connect to Isabelle, making him a special client — a financial union that’s amplified when the teen spies him during a concert she’s attending with her family. Ozon details the sexual encounters with traditional French exposure, but the emotional value remains, watching this teenager experiment and experience with strangers, savoring this secret life as she carries on normally at home and in school (her best friend thinks she’s still a virgin).
The feature takes a turn in its second act, stopping and rewinding Isabelle’s prostitution experience as trouble develops, forcing the girl to retrace her steps and feel her mother’s judgment. Sylvie simply can’t fathom such a personal choice from her daughter, with tentative trust issues and visits to therapy making up the rest of the picture, inspecting the psychological scars that have led to this situation. The performance from Pailhas is nuanced and raw, with Sylvie in a difficult position of condemnation when her daughter is fully aware of her recent bout with infidelity. Scenes where the mother can’t bottle her anxiety due her lack of faith are some of the best in the film. Vacth also retains a special power as the lead character, with Ozon wisely focusing in on her face, keeping the actress insular, which allows her experiences to sink in deeper. Obviously, as a working model, she lives up to the titular promise, but thankfully there’s a performance here that’s responsive to the difficulties and provocations facing the character.
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