Breathe

It starts out rather breezy, like an Eric Rohmer film of yore--sunny vacation days at the seaside, relationships not quite in sync, a highly observant drama with beautiful young actors in in believable situations. Soooo French. Will there be a moral to this tale? I will not spoil any further, but suffice it to say that it becomes MUCH more intense, and totally spellbinding.

The acting is phenomenal. The direction stunning, from Melanie Laurent, still in her 30's, a familiar actress who has graced many a production since 1999. (Although NOTHING could have saved the cosmically terrible Inglorious Basterds).

Don't miss this one if nuanced characterizations and intricate plots appeal to you.

Mean Girls, My Summer of Love, and many other like films have covered well the lesbian coming-of-age film. Breathe, a knowing but ultimately clichéd version of that genre, is a classy take on the angst of being a teen girl at anytime and anyplace.

Almost 18-year old Charlie (Josephine Japy) falls for class newcomer, charismatic Sarah (Lou de Laage), but Charlie has a challenging time catching her elusive, sexy girlfriend. The beauty of the film is the gentle way director Melanie Laurent treats the roiling passions of youth—an obvious thematic element as the teacher at the beginning of the film lectures about the downside of excessive passion.

The dull, washed-out landscape mirrors the depressing state of the working class and teen emotional adjustments. Shots such as Charlie wading into the water and looking at the horizon may be formulaic but nevertheless are a variation of the symbolic language, a part of this emotional teen overdrive: She is in water potentially over her head, and she can only guess at the events' future implications.

The scene of Charlie and Sarah's kiss followed by a slap is spot on to suggest figuratively the ambivalent, volatile nature of early love, regardless of the orientation. As the title suggests, this stuff is normal heavy breathing for young folks. Breathe is a breath of fresh air in a formula well known for film and teens.

Tennyson understood and embraced the passion: "As tho' to breathe were life." Ulysses

A classroom discussion on passion, right at the beginning of the movie, gives an indication of what's to follow. Passion in excess is dangerous says the teacher, in response to our lead character's question, but alas, passion by it's very nature is prone to excess. Controlled passion is near impossible. So it is with our introverted self-controlled, studious heroine, who tries to bring her feelings for her classmate under control. But the other girl just won't let her be, not knowing low close to the edge she's pushing things. The French students in this movie make for a refreshing change from the way high school students are depicted in Hollywood movies. Here, they are fairly mature, intelligent, interested in their studies, never bullying, certainly not hyper sexed. Why haven't I given it a 10? Well, as another reviewer said, you do wonder at times during the movie what the point of it all is...

If person like Sarah haven't not influenced yours life, than this movie can be to short to make reasonable impact on you. On other side, if yours life was strongly influenced by person like Sarah, then this movie could be a little bit to harsh. Before I met such a person I was unable to imagine that this kind of people could possible exist – it just does not make any sense. It was harsh to see this movie, but it is very good to be reminded in clear way that those people exist.

So she's a great director, too. I still haven't seen Laurent's 'Les Adoptes', but will close this gap asap after watching this her 2nd feature film. On the surface alone 'Respire' offers everything that's good about and expected from a social drama produced in Europe: hand- held camera, faithfulness to the light in which we'd see each scenery in real life, the effects being in the faces rather than in post production. The story being told by those faces as much as by film narrative, foremost by Josephine Japy's face. And the film unfolds as everything but mere surface. It's a very simple story, a school friendship going awry with tragic consequences, but Laurent's focus is on the subtleties of this relationship's evolution in each moment, and in collaboration with formidable acting this makes it a compelling watch. One small but powerful feature of film language that particularly delighted me was the smart use of slow motion: slow-mo is too often used in other films in a very annoying, bashful in-your-face way, here it is sparsely used, brief moments that follow the sole purpose of accentuating, and these moments work. The final result is a quiet, engaging, and ultimately disquieting and unsettling portrayal of the potency of emotional conflict at teen-age, of how unrehearsed and thus affecting, cruel and potentially dramatic and disastrous actions and reactions can be, especially if the pretence of adjustment hides the cracks of insufficient, failing or absent home support. Reacting increasingly becomes overreacting, foreboding eventual catastrophe; vulnerability takes vengeance on the greater vulnerability, and it is the containment of this greater vulnerability beating with the heart of the more reasoned protagonist that will in the end cease abruptly and give way to a surrender of control. The final take, as simple, precise and convincing as the entire film, is nothing short of ingenious. Praise be due to the performances of both leads, especially Josephine Japy (often reminding me of a young Binoche), as well as that of Isabelle Carre, playing Charlie's mother.