Une Vraie Jeune Fille

1963: Alice (Charlotte Alexandra), a young girl in her mid-teens, returns home from boarding school to spend the summer with her parents in rural France. Her diary attests to a burgeoning sexuality as fantasies and desire overrun her thoughts. When her father hires a handsome new employee at his sawmill she pursues him in a quest to satiate her newfound appetites. After encountering numerous production difficulties, Catherine Breillat’s first feature was banned upon its initial release in 1976 due to its controversial and graphic exploration of a young girl’s sexuality. Not one to eschew scandal (such as the furore around the sexually explicit Romance (1999) and Fat Girl (2001)), Breillat finally managed to secure a re-release for her film in 2000. Despite the contentious nature of the subject matter, Breillat’s film is beautifully shot with a moody photography, which perfectly reflects the confusing state of teenage angst and sexual awakening. The film alternates between poetic and comic moments, all the while maintaining focus and concern for its central character, with a humanity so often overlooked in the director’s work. Charlotte Alexandra makes the title role her own, delivering a fine performance that is vulnerable, intense and shocking as the film itself.