Fat Girl

Pseudo-art movie with long scenes of cars driving in the highway. Catherine Breillat hates men, women, sex and viewers of her films equally.

A deeply unsettling film that's unflinching in its honest depiction of budding sexuality. Breillat presents painful and cynical truths about how the need to be wanted, to be selected can distance us from a place of security and affection while simultaneously drawing us into a predatory world of exploitation and terror. It's a terrible world where love is synonymous with rape and rejection is a death sentence.

I don't really know what to make of Breillat. She can create rich, realistic characters and write engaging dialogue, which she does well here, but she can also wallow in the dregs of hollow provocation, which she also does here (but it's not as bad as it is in Romance). I wasn't impressed with the ending because it felt very cheap and its cynicism was juvenile, but the the build up to it felt very fresh and honest.

I would have adored this film if it weren't for the last five minutes, honestly

A sensitive and poignant character study with an absolutely WTF ending, which I reluctantly take a few points off for. Not that WTF things don't happen in real life, but as a resolution to the main narrative, it seemed forced and unsatisfactory. I'm interested in what goes through Breillat's brilliant and crazy head.

The dynamic between the sisters is authentic and engaging. But that ending left me utterly perplexed.

I'm not even offended by this ending. This has to be something Breillat didn't had in mind, I believe. And while I usually am a strong believer (like in a lot of other movies ranked here) that art is for questions and blanks to be power- and meaningful, progressive. A Ma Soeur just left me with a big void, I wasn't able to fill. Neither with intellect, schock, despair or joy. Maybe this is simply not a great movie for me, although it feels like one.

Awkward and sometimes hard to watch. Good acting and that guy hit the jackpot: after trying to convince that girl for 15 minutes he gets to do her from behind

fuck

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and Catherine Breillat is from Hell. Love the guy in the start, who spends 10 min. trying to convince the younger girl to have sex with him and ends up going at it anal. It reminded me of a High Fidelity quote: "Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead." Only here it worked.

The characters are solid, the relationships fleshed-out, but what could have been a very good drama is overshadowed by the slightly too blunt means of sexual provocation, as well as the ending being something of a cop-out (which I actually predicted pretty much exactly 20 minutes before it happened). It had an impact, and it's certainly not bad, but it misses the mark on several occasions.

A sad and ultiamtely shocking film. Wonderfully acted and directed, but not for the squeamish or people uncomfortable with sex and the human body.

The dialogue is very genuine, and I like the dynamic between the sisters. The ending is abrupt, shocking, and perhaps irresponsibly incomplete.

Sibling rivalry is no joke, finding the expected beauty standards is no joke. It’s cruel, and as a result, the sisters carefully calculate their attacks against each other. The design of the scenery does challenge the viewer’s will sometimes, but it’s the life they face, so it also makes sense. Anaïs watches, and we watch. It is not a peaceful world, and what Anaïs sees represents that. Breillat walks on a very very thin rope. I’m not 100% sure if she’s successful.

Quaint little film, and the one I've enjoyed most from Breillat thus far. I don't know if 12 year olds should really be so worried about losing their virginity, but I guess that makes for a vastly more stunning grande finale for all the fucked people out there. The scene of driving was interesting, for all the slight events that are somehow elevated by the banality of the scene.

The end makes no sense at all.

An obvious inspiration to Seidl's Paradise trilogy in the way it depicts taboo sexuality with total transparency. The ending sequence starting with the highways does come off a bit detached, but there is something to appreciate about the punk brashness of it.

Nice to look at but one of the shittiest endings of all time. Spits in your face

Viewed February 7, 2021.

Para Minha Irmã estreava há 20 anos no Festival de Berlim. https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/fat-girl/

i don't think the particulars of this setup can be generalised into anything about the nature of 'love' (CB actually seems to think all romantic love fundamentally resembles elena's, which is... pretty sad), but the unflinching enaction of societally normalised rape is still bold and uncomfortable, even if the way she then uses a 'conventional' rape to hammer the comparison home is rather condescending. hard to believe reboux's acting career was done by the end of the year, she's so good here.

The story is well done and the acting over all works, I can't say it was well acted but the acting seems real. Overall the themes and how they were presented kept me intrigued. Okay the ending, now I kind of figured out how they were going to end this but it's the way the ending happened that I didn't like. The ending they chose was so stupid and out of place that I ending up dropping the rating quite a bit.

Well, I don't think it was 'boring' like a lot of people think. In my opinion, the characters are pretty well written and have a lot of depth to them, and it is a pretty relatable movie. I will admit that around the end of the movie, it was dragged out longer than it should have been and the ending was frankly insane. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though.

Water is turning into clouds in a very warm day, in which sensitive people feel nevertheless extreamly cold (they shiver), and they turn the AC on, they drink Tea with warm Blankets, to make it physical, to make it real. But then, the AC's water, they do not manage to transcend. They might cry.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

hard to know what to write about films sometimes. this was a very good drama, with a heavy dose of sexual politics, dealt with complexity, emotion and intellect. the ending might be a tad on the ridiculous side, but perhaps not inaccurate, as rape and murder don't always occur as a conclusion to a series of events, but rather completely out of the blue. it's also a really, really interesting choice. the use of music, although sparse, is among the worst i've ever heard, and reduced my score.

very strong movie about gender and family but the exaggerated gestures and attitudes of mother and a "too calculated" end weakens the overall effect

09 Ocak 2013, zevahir & very honest, very familiar, very strong.

This movie is wonderful up until the utterly pointless and stupid ending (which is a shame because it takes away from brilliant scenes like the first sex scene). I know it's something of a fulfillment of Anaïs's fantasy but a fantasy is not necessarily something the individual actually wants to happen.

craaaazy movie

Very interesting character piece that uses long lingering scenes to explore burgeoning sexuality and related pressures. How I feel about what it's actually saying is another matter, especially with the ending that seems to come out of nowhere. Some parts are a culmination of what precedes it, but others seem to simply be there to shock.

Sometimes shocking yet always intriguing, "Fat Girl" gives us a, perhaps exaggerated. look at how the desire to be loved can be so strong in some people. Often graphic and totally unafraid. It's hard to put a number on this one, though I am forced to due so. As I am a bit undecided, I am forced to give a rating that may seem low, but I do find this film to be very much worth watching.

At first I wasn't impressed at all, but then it punched me in the face with one of the greatest happy endings I've ever seen.

"Catherine Breillat's vision is so deceptively tranquil that love becomes indistinguishable from rape." - Ed Gonzalez

I ... honestly think I liked this, and usually I find Breillat dull and obvious. Here we have a slow-moving, subtle portrait of adolescent sexual discovery, and frustration. The long sexual negotiation in bed between the older sister and her adult boyfriend is magnificently handled. Cruel, believable and hypnotic to watch. Could have done with less shots of highway traffic. Oh, and THAT ENDING ... it sealed the deal for me, but it really does divide people. See for yourself.

The sexual initiation of two adolescent sisters, one kittenish, the other bearish ("No one would think we're sisters"), on a holiday. Very candid and detailed, with extended negotiations required of an older seducer. (Breillat doesn't strive to outdo her hardcore Romance, however; and the rudeness of the title was imposed for export: the original French translates as To My Sister.) Very steady-handed up until the off-key finish. Careful attention to color; excellent shots of freeway traffic.

"The adolescent misery is wrily captured and the depiction of juvenile sex as a battle between lust and hesitant longing is shrewd and sad. But that ending..."

Compelling and honest. It dragged a little bit in the middle but I still loved it. And another thing, the ending wasn't a cop-out you idiots. Breillat was foreshadowing that ending the entire film, what else do you want?

OK OK it's frank and sexually provocative, but I just don't care