À ma soeur! (2001), Catherine Breillat
Fat Girl

A young girl vacations with her slightly older, and much more conventionally attractive sister and their parents. The sisters decide they want to lose their respective virginities on this trip, and almost immediately, the older sister gets her first chance at it. What happens next is an excellent example of what can go wrong when you are a young girl with a taste for older men. The ending comes completely out of left field, and I refuse to elaborate, other than to say I cannot see this movie ending any other way.

Fat Girl is the first Breillat movie I have ever seen, and immediately after it was over, I found every movie of hers I possibly could and put them on my Netflix queue. Watching this film, I felt the same way I have many times when watching things like My So-Called Life, or Freaks and Geeks. It just so perfectly depicts how awful and heartbreaking it sometimes is to grow up. I almost felt like it was something that happened to me once, but I had blocked it from memory. Probably because similar things/feelings did happen to me, but I digress. Sure, a lot of the events in this film could be considered sensational, but it is ridiculous to think that things like these don't happen. Any sensationalism in this film works in its favor, as it tends to be more thought-provoking than exploitative.

I definitely recommend this to females with sisters close in age, in particular. I feel as though perhaps I am being a bit sexist in saying that, but Breillat has clearly skewed this film toward a female audience. It deals with a lot of sexual and gender issues, as well as the relationship between sisters going through their teenage years together. It also brings up something I have thought my whole life: smart, interesting, but average-looking women get shafted, while their more attractive, less substantial counterparts get the attention. C'est la vie.

Grade: A

Frontière(s) (2007), Xavier Gens
Frontier(s)

Frontier(s) is one of the best horror films of last year, and you've probably never heard of it. It was taken off the schedule at last year's "8 Films to Die For" After Dark Horrorfest, due to it's NC-17 rating. The highest allowable rating for the After Dark Horrorfest is an R, which Frontier(s) apparently missed by a mile. It was released uncut in select U.S. theaters for one weekend only, then was released on DVD the following Tuesday. Now I wish I had heard of this film when it was out. I would have LOVED to see it in a theater.

Anyways, it's a French film, by a relatively young/new director, Xavier Gens. A group of five friends decide to take advantage of the riots consuming France's police force by stealing a bunch of cash. However, things go horribly awry, and they decide to split up for the moment. They are to meet up later at an undetermined location. Although being persued by police, two of the friends simply cannot go on, due to exhaustion (and copious amounts of marijuana). They stumble upon a hostel in the middle of nowhere, and decide to sleep there for the night. By the time their friends arrive to meet them, shit has indeed gotten real. They get much more than the bargained for when the family that owns the hostel turns out to be a bunch of demented, sadistic, cannibalistic Neo-Nazis, bent on creating their own Aryan race.

The lead female character is a total badass. She was a great actress, and I hope to see more of her work. That is one thing that I love about French horror films- they do not discriminate. Women are given just as strong, if not stronger, roles than their male counterparts in horror films. I wish America would follow suit. It seems as though any time they have, it comes off as more like they're compensating than being genuine. (Hostel 2, anyone?)

The overall tone and look of the film is extremely brutal. They definitely don't skimp on the blood and guts, although I'm not entirely convinced that it deserved to be slapped with an NC-17. (I'd love to chat more about my problems with the MPAA, but that's a whole 'nother entry.) I'm a big supporter of filmmakers who refuse to trim down their movie just to get an R rating. Never say die!

Grade: A

C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992), Rémy Belvaux
Man Bites Dog: It Happened in Your Neighborhood

Man Bites Dog continually appears on movie reviewers' most disturbing movie lists, and for good reason. We follow a (faux) documentary film crew as they gather footage on Ben, a charming serial killer who proves to be quite the Renaissance man. While he is sexist, racist, possibly homophobic, and an all-around asshole, he is also very knowledgeable about art, music, film, poetry, architecture... and various ways of killing and disposing of corpses.

It is not explained how the film crew stumbles upon Ben, or who the intended audience of this "documentary" is, but we follow the crew from Day 1. To amend my previous statement that Ben is a "serial killer," I'd like to add that he very rarely ever kills innocent people, it is almost always for money. I'm not really sure what you would call that. He seems very intelligent and well-read, one would think that Ben could get a "real job" with no problem, but he really seems to enjoy his chosen profession.

The crew quickly goes from being horrified of his capabilities to becoming more and more involved with his 'job'. At first it is mostly just disposing of bodies, but one fateful night when a crew member dares Ben to spend an evening in the suburbs, they end up participating in the suffocation of a young boy. Next thing you know, they are gang raping a woman and sleeping next to her innards after one too many Dead Baby Boys. (Sounds pretty good actually, a gin and tonic with an olive tied to a sugar cube dropped inside- hence the name "Dead Baby Boy." When the cube melts and floats to the top, you eat the olive. Yum!)

Things really start to go awry when the quarry into which they have thrown all the bodies dries up. In addition to that mess, it becomes pretty clear in the beginning of the film that someone other than the film crew has been following Ben's exploits. The movie grinds to a shocking and terrifying halt, as everything comes together.

I should probably mention that this is a black comedy. The juxtaposition of humor and violence makes you wonder if you should really be laughing. If you're laughing, you get it. If you're not, then you should probably stick to Sex and the City or whatever you were watching before. Filmed in black and white, with then unknowns acting as both cast and crew, I was reminded a bit of The Blair Witch Project, particularly at the end. It just seems so horrifyingly real. I wouldn't be surprised if, much like Blair Witch, some people believed that the movie was actual documentary footage when this was released.

Grade: A+

À l'intérieur (2007), Alexandre Bustillo/Julien Maury
Inside



A pregnant woman and her husband are involved in a car crash. The husband dies. His wife and unborn child survive. She becomes more and more depressed each day, as one obviously would due to losing the love of their life to such circumstances, and thus she is pretty much a complete asshole to everyone close to her. The night before Christmas, Sarah prepares to give birth bright and early the next day. All is well and normal, until she gets a seemingly random (and shit-in-pants inducing) visit from a mysterious woman.

This movie is fucking TERRIFYING! Seriously! I thought maybe it was just because I myself possess a uterus, and therefore can identify. But no! I have seen this twice, both times I was the only female present, and was most definitely NOT the only person on the brink of urinating all over myself. Sure, there are some things that don't add up. But my personal opinion is that the unexplainable adds to the cringe factor. The type of horror movies that scare me most are ones involving home intrusions (If you can recommend me some, that would be rad. Thanks in advance.), so needless to say... shit, meet pants.

Grade: A+


P.S. La Femme looked pretty familiar to me, so I IMDb'ed her, and she was totally the blind lady in Jarmusch's Night on Earth! Weird, huh?

Dans Ma Peau (2002), Marina De Van
In My Skin

Esther badly injures her leg at a party. Astonished by how painless it was, and the way her leg looks now that it has been altered from it's former perfect state, she begins to explore her body further through self-mutilation, cannibalism, and so forth. She continues down her path of self-destruction, much to the dismay of her boyfriend, her friends, and her co-workers, who cannot understand her new obsession.

I watched this movie for the wrong reasons. In the States, it is often mislabeled as a gory horror movie. I watched it because I'm a big fan of the horror movies coming out of France in the past few years. What I got was something much more. In My Skin is a deeply personal film, written, directed, and starring Marina De Van. We Americans are so used to having things spoonfed to us that we get disappointed when a movie actually makes us think. Unfortunately, I must admit that is how I reacted to this film at first. There are so many ways that this film can be interpreted, and the only person who truly has the answers is Ms. De Van herself.

A lot of people see this as some sort of feminist statement, but I really think it has very little to do with that. My personal feeling is that Esther is unable to truly connect with others, and possibly losing her sense of self. Possible mental illness (?) in addition to her feeling of disconnection from herself and others is what draws her to explore her... insides.

The scenes of her self-mutilation are highly eroticized, in the sense that they are filmed in the same way one would film a sex scene. I would even go as far as to compare her compulsive behavior with an illicit affair. It starts off small, then develops into a obsession that is selfish and disregards those who implore one to cease their destructive behavior. I find this aspect of this film the most fascinating.

I would recommend this film to those who enjoy contemporary French films; Cronenberg fans that wonder what his movies would be like if he were a French woman in her 30s; or total pervs that want to see full frontal AT ANY COST. In My Skin is very open to interpretation, and I would be interested to hear what others got out of this film.

Grade: B+