Tomboy
France
2011
84 Min
Color
1.85:1
French
Synopsis
There is definitely something boyish about ten-year-old Laure. She has recently moved to a new area with her parents and her little sister, Jeanne. It’s summertime and all the other neighbourhood children are playing outside – only Laure is alone, for she knows nobody of her own age. But then, one day, she meets Lisa, a girl who is exactly the same age. Laure allows her new acquaintance to believe that she is a boy. Laure becomes Mikaël, and, no sooner has she brought about this ‘transformation’ than she begins playing with all the other neighbourhood children. As time passes, Laure’s relationship to Lisa becomes increasingly close, making the ambiguity of her situation ever more complicated.
Céline Sciamma is a proponent of a new generation of filmmakers in France. In an interview with Cineuropa in August 2007 she comments: “I became a cinephile as a result of young French cinema of the 90s: Desplechin, Lvovsky, Rochant. But I like Gus Van Sant and Larry Clark a lot too for their work on adolescence, not to forget David Lynch.” –Berlinale
Director
Céline Sciamma
Céline Sciamma (1980) is a French screenwriter and film director. She studied French literature at first, then completed courses in screenwriting at the Paris film school La Femis. She deals with both film and TV productions. Her debut film was Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres, 2007), which was successful at many international festivals. She also shot the short film Pauline (2010) and the feature-length film Tomboy (2011). She has also written several screenplays. —Zlin Film Festival
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pivic
10May12
I'd say this film is essential to 2012. The direction is completed by the script, and they're both genial; the kids are either brilliant actors from the get-go or are wonderfully directed. It's a kids' world in this film, and it's all the better for it. It made me question my own ideas, preconceptions and prejudice when gender is involved, and is eye-opening, funny and a bit sad. It's life, beautifully presented.
suddenmoves
20Apr12
A tender, gentle film about gender through the eyes of children that never judges any of its characters. Just lovely.
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Céline Sciamma's "Tomboy"
By David Hudson on November 16, 2011
“Tomboy astutely explores the freedom, however brief, of being untethered to the highly rule-bound world of gender codes.”
Frameline35 + Kinski and Japanese Divas
By David Hudson on June 16, 2011
The 35th edition of the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, or Frameline35, opens tonight with Rashaad Ernesto Green's Gun Hill
EIFF 2011 - TOMBOY Review
By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011
This is a reprint of a review published at BlogCritics.org.Sure to be one of 2011’s most subtly effective films, Céline Sciamma’s second directorial effort, Tomboy (arriving after the well received Water
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Beautiful in direction, screenplay and acting
By pivic on May 10, 2012
I’d say this film is essential to 2012. The direction is completed by the script, and they’re both genial; the kids are either brilliant actors from the get-go or are wonderfully directed. It’s a kids’… read review
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