SFIFF Spotlights #3: Young and Beautiful/Tonnere/No No: A Dockumentary/Chinese Puzzle

Coverage of the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) continues at Spinning Platters with four more film spotlights. Program notes and tickets available here.

Young and Beautiful
(France 2013, 93 min; French with English subtitles)

Isabelle est jeune et jolie.
Isabelle est jeune et belle.

French actress Marine Vacth is riveting in François Ozon’s drama about Isabelle, a 17-year-old high school student who loses her virginity during the summer and is working as a call girl by fall. Isabelle’s story unfolds over the course of four seasons, and we see the effect her choices have on her, her family, and her older male clients. Is Isabelle naively experimenting, working out unresolved father issues, or shrewdly and coldly wielding her newly discovered sexual power almost sociopathically? Is Isabelle even capable of forming real emotional bonds? Ozon’s intense psychological exploration of Isabelle’s choices and motivations isn’t always easy to watch – and Isabelle isn’t always a sympathetic character – but her story is deeply affecting, and you’ll be mulling over the answers to the questions the film raises long after it ends.

Screenings:

  • Monday, April 28th, 9:30pm, Kabuki
  • Thursday, May 1st, 3:45pm, Kabuki
  • Also opens at Landmark’s Opera Plaza and Shattuck Theaters on May 9th

Tickets available here.

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