New Features

WATER LILIES (adv 15)

Wednesday 28 November
Duke of York's Picturehouse 6:30PM

(Naissance Des Pieuvres)

A coming of age tale set in amidst the world of synchronised swimming as three 15-year old girls explore their burgeoning sexuality. Celine Sciamma’s sensitive debut is the kind of quality French drama we almost take for granted.

Summer in an anonymous suburb outside Paris and Marie hopes to make her local synchronised swimming team captained by Floriane, a big hit with all the local boys. Tagging along with Floriane Marie finds herself becoming her accomplice in a series of assignations with boyfriend Francois but Marie’s best friend chubby Anne has also set her sights on Francois.

The triangle of love and desire between the girls becomes the trigger for a series of power struggles as Sciamma expertly guides the young cast throughout. Tender but with flashes of humour WATER LILIES sometimes moves into a territory reminiscent of Catherine Breillat’s A MA SOEUR! Adults are virtually absent throughout the film and boys are kept very much in the background so the young women are at the very centre of the story. The swimming pool manoeuvres of the young swimmers especially the underwater scenes gives the film a distinctive visual motif.

Director: Celine Sciamma. With: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachert, Adele Haenel. France 2007. 85mins. French with English Subtitles.

Watch the Trailer

+short film
LA FORET (The Forest)
Director: Daniel Graham. France/UK 2007. 13mins

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