Water Lilies

Naissance des pieuvres

France

2007

85 Min

Color

1.85:1

French

Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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PROD Bénédicte Couvreur, Jérôme Dopffer

CAST Adèle Haenel, Louise Blachère, Pauline Acquart, Warren Jacquin, Alice de Lencquesaing, Claire Pierrat, Barbara Renard, Esther Sironneau, Jérémie Steib, Yvonne Villemaire, Christophe Vandevelde

MUSIC Jean-Baptiste de Laubier

Cannes (Un Certain Regard), London (French), Toronto (Vanguard), Rotterdam (Sturm und Drang), San Francisco (New Directors), Athens, !F Istanbul

Synopsis

Three 15-year-old girls living in the ultra-modern Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise find the dynamics of their relationships gradually beginning to shift in first-time filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s intimate look into the world of synchronized swimming. Floriane (Adele Haenel) is a beautiful blonde with a perfect body and remarkable talent in the pool. Marie (Pauline Acquart) is something of a tomboy taken to water, and Anne (Louise Blachere) is an overweight-but-outgoing swimmer whose crush on a male swimmer (who only has eyes for the physically flawless Floriane) is about to forever change the way these three disparate souls relate to one another.

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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Ariel Rowan

30Mar13

relatable pit sweat drama

Matt Richards

27Feb13

Swapping genuine emotion for surface level coming-of-age-sensuality, Water Lilies took almost 3/4 of it's duration to get moving and then revealed exactly what we already knew. Yes it's about painful lessons learned in youth but we never really get inside any of the characters heads. The absence of any parents and a clunky visual metaphor for friendship at the end only added insult to injury. 2.5 stars

Zesty Enterprise

25Nov12

Moral of the story, growing up is a confusing and awkward experience for everyone.

pivic

19Nov12

Growing up isn't easy to do. But this film puts beauty in that pain, without a lot of crap music and easy direction. Au contraire, this is hard work but the message comes out simple and beautiful.

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