Girls Can't Swim
{{Infobox film
| name = Girls Can't Swim
| image = Les filles ne savent pas nager.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Film poster
| director = Anne-Sophie Birot
| producer = Philippe Jacquier
| writer = Anne-Sophie Birot
Christophe Honoré
| screenplay =
| story =
| based_on =
| starring = Isild Le Besco
Karen Alyx
Pascale Bussières
Pascal Elso
Marie Rivière
Yelda Reynaud
Sandrine Blancke
Julien Cottereau
Dominique Lacarrière
| music = Ernest Chausson
| cinematography = Nathalie Durand
| editing = Pascale Chavance
| studio = Centre National de la Cinématographie
| distributor = Haut et Court
| released = {{Film date|2000|10|18|France|df=yes}}
| runtime = 102 minutes
| country = France
| language = French
| budget =
| gross = $69,250{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=girlscantswim.htm |title=Girls Can't Swim |work=Box Office Mojo}}
}}
Girls Can't Swim ({{langx|fr|Les Filles ne savent pas nager}}) is a 2000 French coming of age drama film. The film had its world premiere at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival and was released in France on 18 October of that year.{{Cite web |title=Girls Can't Swim |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/434098/girls-cant-swim/#notes |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=TCM Movie Database |language=en}} It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on 19 April 2002.
Plot
Gwen is a teenager living in a coastal town in Brittany; Lise is her city-living best friend. They meet up each summer as Lise's family visits. This year's visit is different though - Lise is dealing with her distant father's death, and Gwen has become promiscuous with boys, which threatens to affect the girls' friendship.
Cast
- Isild Le Besco as Gwen
- Karen Alyx as Lise
- Pascale Bussières as Céline
- Pascal Elso as Alain
- Marie Rivière as Anne-Marie
- Yelda Reynaud as Solange
- Sandrine Blancke as Vivianne
- Julien Cottereau as Frédo
- Dominique Lacarrière as Rose
Reception
Stephen Holden of the New York Times said "Girls Can't Swim ultimately lacks the epic dimension of Y Tu Mamá También, but its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition."{{cite web |author=Holden |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Holden |date=19 April 2002 |title=FILM REVIEW; Two Girls and a Boy Swept Away by Themselves |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/movies/film-review-two-girls-and-a-boy-swept-away-by-themselves.html |access-date=5 February 2011 |work=New York Times}}
Leslie Camhi of The Village Voice gave a positive review, writing “[Birot’s] film falters when it takes a final, violent turn into melodrama. Until then, though, she captures the deep currents of love and rivalry that make female teen friendships so important and so volatile.”{{Cite web |last=Camhi |first=Leslie |date=17 April 2002 |title=Girls Can't Swim review |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0216/camhi2.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020606161958/http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0216/camhi2.php |archive-date=6 June 2002 |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=The Village Voice}}
Jamie Russell of the BBC reviewed the film positively, stating “Sexual politics aside, what makes 'Girls Can't Swim
Paula Nechak of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, “Birot delves into subtexts on the principles of transference: the Oedipal attachments to their fathers that the girls renounce in order to gain other love objects. Her exploration of these psychological tenets in the context of modern teen behavior makes for darkly compelling and fresh viewing.”{{Cite web |last=Nechak |first=Paula |date=16 August 2002 |title=Tale of two teenage friends surprises with its power |url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/82831_swim16q.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021002044711/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/82831_swim16q.shtml |archive-date=2 October 2002 |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=Seattle PI}}
On the other hand, Charles Taylor of Salon gave a negative review, writing, “Everything about 'Girls Can't Swim,’ even its passages of sensitive observation, feels secondhand, familiar—and not in a good way.”{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Charles |date=24 April 2002 |title="Girls Can't Swim" |url=https://www.salon.com/2002/04/24/girls_8/ |access-date=2 May 2022 |website=Salon.com |language=en}} Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, saying "The phrase ‘coming of age,' when applied to movies, almost always implies sex, but Girls Can't Swim has nothing useful to say about sex (certainly not compared to Catherine Breillat's brilliant Fat Girl from last year), and is too jerky in structure to inspire much empathy from us."{{cite web |author=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=9 August 2002 |title=Girls Can't Swim |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/girls-cant-swim-2002 |access-date=5 February 2011 |website=RogerEbert.com}}
The film has a 71% approval based on 34 reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.{{Cite web |title=Girls Can't Swim |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girls_cant_swim |access-date=2 May 2002 |website=Rotten Tomatoes}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0239507|title=Girls Can't Swim}}
- [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girls_cant_swim Girls Can’t Swim] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [https://www.celluloid-dreams.com/girls-cant-swim Girls Can’t Swim] at Celluloid Dreams
Category:2000 LGBTQ-related films
Category:French LGBTQ-related films
Category:Lesbian-related films
Category:2000s LGBTQ-related drama films
Category:2000 directorial debut films
Category:French coming-of-age drama films
Category:2000s coming-of-age drama films
Category:Films about juvenile sexuality