manuelasaez First, about the technical aspects of the film; the acting was superb, the directorial style was visually pleasing, and the premise was deceptively simple. It's what you don't know about this film that really makes it as powerful as it ultimately is. I went in not having even seen a preview, and I was blown away. When this movie ended, my jaw was on the floor, and my heart was pounding. I didn't know what just happened, why it happened, and how it could have hit me so forcefully. I won't spoil anything here, but this movie is one of the most shocking films I have seen in a long time. It's difficult to watch, but a great example of what talent truly is.

Steve Pulaski Anaïs (Anaïs Reboux in her only acting role as of 2013) is the titular character in Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl ("À ma soeur!" being its original French title). A chubby twelve year old girl, who finds herself constantly browbeaten by her fifteen year old sister, Elena (Roxane Mesquida) while they are vacationing with their parents off the coast of France. Elena, unlike her sister, is thin, incredibly gorgeous, and possesses a beautiful body. A topic of discussion between the two young girls as they listlessly walk around the resort is their virginity and their relationships. Elena, while sexually promiscuous, holds the belief that your virginity should be taken by someone you love. Her younger sister, however, believes that you should your first time should happen just to happen and you should just get it over with.While walking, they meet a law student named Fernando (Libero De Rienzo), who immediately finds himself attracted to Elena. Not long after meeting him does Elena invite Fernando up to her room to talk. Fernando believes like Elena does - that sex should be something sacred and special - but he winds up convincing her to partake in anal sex instead, as vaginal sex is something that judges whether or not you still have your virginity.While it is questionable that Fernando actually believes what he is saying, we can see Elena's hesitation during the foreplay and the sex. We are well aware of her beliefs at this point in time, however, we can see that she has a common curiosity about sex so much so that she simply wants to see just how the act is performed and executed.This scene is one lengthy, naturalistic shot Breillat conducts in the room shared by Elena and Anaïs, boldly establishing real-time, mood, and discomfort just by the way the shot is framed, how long it lasts, and how the characters are placed inside the shot. Fernando and Elena are spooning, with Elena's nightgown on and her vagina and pubic hair clearly visible to the audience. Fernando continues to rub her stomach in a way that doesn't change Elena's blank, frustrated, and confused expression. She knows what she's doing is wrong but is overcome by understandable adolescent curiosity. Anaïs is laying in bed several feet away, closing her eyes and pretending her sister's innocence isn't being taken away in front of her.Fat Girl works well because it illustrates the sexual tendencies of the female and a believable sibling rivalry that is captured with surprising purity and tenderness. When Anaïs and Elena fight, it's nothing but believable. When the two talk quietly in bed it is also believable, almost as if they are real-life sisters. This is because Reboux and Mesquida are not only great screen presences but evoke relatable chemistry as young girls. This chemistry is what the entire film rests on, due to the fact that parents' roles are predicated off of disinterest and ignorance, leaving the girls to utilize each other for companionship and advice.It's a tough subject and Breillat doesn't sugarcoat it. Either she lived a grim reality similar to her characters or she has seen friends go through circumstances akin to Anaïs's and Elena's. Or perhaps she has her head inside a teenage girls' head. Perhaps she just has a deep resonance and an awareness to the sexual maturity of adolescent girls. If that's the case, it would be tough to communicate such a resonance, but Breillat finds ways to do so in Fat Girl that make the film an unsettling and often very consuming piece of work.Much has been made about the ending that is admittedly out of nowhere, able to shock the most hardened viewer raw because of its jolting nature, and implied to add ambiguity and an additional layer to the story. After several hours, where it has crossed my mind about every five minutes, I have not made up my mind on it. An amendment to the review will be made if I do. Perhaps it's a rare moment when an instance in a very great film happens that I'll never be able to define. Did I like it? Did I loathe it? Is it out of place? Does it derail the story? No matter the answer to the question, the previous seventy-nine minutes were still disturbing and well worth seeing.Starring: Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, and Arsinée Khanjian. Directed by: Catherine Breillat.

billcr12 French director Catherine Breillat has a reputation for making sexually explicit films. In Fat Girl, the lead, Anais is overweight, twelve years old, and a frustrated virgin. Her older sister, Elena, is beautiful and thin. While at a resort at a beach in France, they discuss their plans for losing their innocence. Elena is waiting for love and Anais just wants to get it over with. They meet a student, Fernando, who is invited to their bedroom. Mom and dad are heavy sleepers and oblivious. After begging all night Elena submits to anal sex, with her sister nearby. The next morning, the threesome go to the beach where Fernando presents Elena with an expensive opal ring. It works like a charm, because that night they have sexual intercourse. Uh oh, big mistake; here comes Fernando's mother, looking for her ring.The girl's mother decides to drive them back home. They stop at a rest area to nap, and a man with bad intentions, armed with an axe shows up. The climax is not what I expected, but it certainly is original and surprising, given that Fat Girl was made by a female director. ,

schnoidl a true portrait of some incredibly immature people you can't possibly come to care one bit about, who flop from one impulse or random surface emotion to another, lie to and absent-mindedly manipulate each other, with loads of prurient underage sex that adds nothing to the story, and a supremely lazy ending that i wish like hell i could get out of my memory. if you want to believe the above reviewers who say it's all poignant and intimate and all that, well go right ahead and see it. but when you hate the vicious ending and can't get it out of your head ever and it gives you the creeps every time you think of it, well, i did try to warn you. i've seen a couple of her films (this will be the last ever), and she seems to take a very schizophrenic delight in openly wallowing in the permissive/sordid lives of her characters, only to kill them out of nowhere, ultimately an incredibly dull moralizing prudishness masked as curiosity. maybe this smelled like a big windup to some big revelation to her, but to me it just stunk.