Plot
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.
Storyline
Isabelle is on summer holidays with her family in the in the south of France. She decides to lose her virginity to a German boy called Felix, but the experience leaves her cold. By autumn she is exploring her sexuality further by working as a prostitute under the name Lea and meeting an older man called George, and various other clients. During one encounter with George he dies from a heart attack, Isabelle leaves the scene, and quits prostitution. The police eventually track her down and reveal her secret life to her mother.
Cast: Marine Vacth -
Isabelle
Géraldine Pailhas -
Sylvie
Frédéric Pierrot -
Patrick
Fantin Ravat -
Victor
Johan Leysen -
Georges
Charlotte Rampling -
Alice
Nathalie Richard -
Véro
Djedje Apali -
Peter
Lucas Prisor -
Felix
Laurent Delbecque -
Alex
Jeanne Ruff -
Claire
Carole Franck -
La policière
Olivier Desautel -
Le policier
Serge Hefez -
Le psychiatre
Akéla Sari -
Mouna
Having lived a relatively sheltered life, a young 17 year old girl,
Isabelle (Marine Vacth), begins to explore her sexuality in rather a
risqué fashion. We meet Isabelle on holiday on the eve of her 17th
birthday. While on vacation, she meets a German boy and has an
underwhelming first sexual experience. We meet her again in the Autumn
to learn she is now leading a double life, moonlighting as a high class
escort while still living under her mother's roof and attending school.
Of course there are some very ugly situations and in some hard to watch
scenes, we see Isabelle near accepting the degrading attitude of some
of her clients as if it is all her self worth, but then we also get to
see her striking up a tender relationship of a different kind, with a
much older man and later witness a conceited smile as she turns on her
phone to a plethora of messages. Why does she do this to herself? Is it
a form of self-harm or a narcissism? Is it an addiction, spurred from a
desire to be loved without outwardly feeling capable of loving? Does
she do it for the danger, the fear, the excitement, or is the money a
factor also? Is it part due to having an estranged father? Does she
enjoy it because it endows her with power over men and draws jealousy
and insecurity from women? Or is she simply feeling starved of
experience and hungers exploration?
All these questions are certainly posed or at least hinted at, but
don't expect clear explanations or moral conclusions. No, the movie
explores these themes without outrightly condemning or condoning her
actions. Yes, Isabelle does draw herself into difficulty through her
actions, but the discourse of this movie is not one of the obvious
cause and effect we have come to know from mainstream cinema. There is
no deus et machina to extricate an easy exit or satisfactory fix or
lesson well learnt or crime punished. There are only the awkward
moments that life throws at us in unexpected ways and uncomfortable
truths that may never be satisfactorily reconciled. In other words, we
are looking through a window into but a moment within this young lady's
life --the passing of a year, the exploration of her sexuality-- and
the fascinating aspect of this movie is that we see her live out the
extraordinary in quite an ordinary way.
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