#pauline acquart

[fr-omis]

[mariwatchesmovies]

Naissance des pieuvres (2007) | Water Lillies (2007) dir. Céline Sciamma cine. Crystel Fournier

[raffaella-cerullo]

naissance des pieuvres (2007)

[lilith-salammbo]

[elliotsmithlover13]

i j found this and i'm so happy

[disguting-girl-reads]

they're soooo fem weechesters coded

[wei-ying-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those of you who don’t know, I decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s queer cinema syllabus, which is comprised of 9 units. I have completed four of the units (here is my queer cinema syllabus round up post with all the films I’ve watched and written about so far). It is time for me to make my way through Unit 5- Lesbians, which includes the following films: The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995), Bound (1996), Water Lilies (2007), Saving Face (2004), D.E.B.S. (2004), Set It Off (1996), The Handmaiden (2016), Carol (2015), Imagine Me and You (2005), Two of Us (2019), Rafiki (2018), and The Color Purple (1985). 

Today I will (finally) be watching Naissance des Pieuvres or as it is titled in English:

Water Lilies (2007) dir. Céline Sciamma

[Run Time: 1 hour 20 minutes, Language: French]

Summary: A love triangle forms among three adolescent girls who meet at a local pool over summer break and each desires the love of another.

Cast:  - Pauline Acquart as Marie - Adèle Haenel as Floriane - Louise Blachère as Anne - Warren Jacquin as François

___

Okay well, I need to give a massive shout out to @twig-tea without whom this film viewing would not have occurred. I have exactly two films left in this unit, and I do not plan on doing retrospectives or anything so I will just say this here. 

What I have learned about sapphic films: 

At a minimum, 70% of the air time is dedicated to two sapphics of any age silently staring at each other 

That out of the way, this was a lovely little coming of age film and I was incredibly appreciative of the fact that they actually cast actors who were the same age of their characters for this. At this point I am so used to adulted in their twenties or (god forbid) thirties playing teenagers, and I think this film would have had a very different vibe if that were the case. 

Y’all these kids were awkward as fuck in the best possible way, it was nice to see some early 2000’s fashion, and I think when you get 15-18 year old actors for films like this it is helpful recontextualization for how young people are when they start drinking, and flirting, and having sex. And it aids the tragedy too of watching Floraine talk about the experience she had been sexually assaulted (my words, not hers) by the pool boy. 

I am really interested in the decision to make this a film around synchronized swimming. Maybe there is something to be said about the ways in which a synchronized team needs to know their team and their routines intimately and yet the girls on Floraine’s team have a completely false perception of who she is as a person. 

And I think the ages of these performers really helps support that misconception. Floraine is a beautiful girl, and she is young, and she has had full grown adults climb in to the pool where she is practicing and pull out their dicks. I was genuinely concerned about her safety when the grown adult man was asking if she wanted a massage before she went into the pool, and the fact that she did agree, and that we do not know what happened behind that closed door. (Maybe massages are a natural part of competitive synchro but I could not stop thinking about the US Women’s gymnastics team and the team doctor that abused them.) 

Floraine is young, and these girls around her have decided that she is a “slag” for whatever reason, and she is at such a perfect age to toe the line between promiscuity and modesty. She will doll herself up, she will make out with boys at parties, and she will go to clubs to grind up against and make out with grown adult men, but whenever she steps closer to actually engaging in sex, she stops herself or Marie stops the encounter for her. 

And, their ages really help sell the sex scenes in this. I have added this film to a list of my favorite portrayals of sex because holy shit are the sex scenes awkward and terrible. There is no romance in them in any way, shape, or form. The sex scene between Floraine and Marie is literally just like two minutes of Floraine lying there completely still while Marie, presumably, sticks a finger up her vagina, barely moves it, and ends with Floraine looking pained and shedding a tear. 

The sex scene between Anne and Francios is also painfully awkward. That man shows up to her apartment after being denied sex by the girl he actually wants to fuck. He thanks Anne for the necklace she gave him which he promptly gave to Floraine, and then without another word his hands are just all over her. There is no romance, there is no passion, this is just a horny teenager sticking his dick in someone who is willing to get fucked. 

Also the smeared lipstick all over Marie and Floraine’s mouths after they make out at the party? Iconic. 

I am quite mad that Marie never apologized to Anne for the mean shit she said to her, because she truly started poking at all the insecurities that she knows Anne has (shout out to teenage girls for knowing just what to say to tear you down). And at the same time, I appreciate Anne so much for knowing that Marie is just having a temper tantrum, and navigating whatever complicated feelings she has. It was quite a strong friendship moment when Marie was like “I’m sick of you,” and Anne’s first response was not hurt, not upset, was a simple, casual, bored reply “Okay Mrs. No Tits.” 

Now. Thinking about this film in relation to BL, since that is where this syllabus is headed I have to say 

There is a pinky touch. We love a pinky touch. We live for a pinky touch. There can never not be a young queer love story that is absent a pinky touch. 

They did a very lovely job using naturally occurring lines like walls or grooves in sidewalks to create barriers between Marie and Floraine a la many a BL 

TOH FROM SECRET CRUSH ON YOU LEARNED ALL HIS CREEPY LITTLE HOARDING TRICKS FROM MARIE! THIS GIRL STOLE TRASH AND KEPT IT IN HER DESK DRAWER AND SHE BIT INTO AN APPLE THAT HAD BEEN THROWN IN SAID TRASH JUST SO SHE COULD TASTE SOMETHING FLORAINE’S MOUTH HAD BEEN ON.

Favorite Moment

The very last scene of the film is my favorite moment, when Anne and Marie are starfishing out ala I Told Sunset About You after finally walking away from the people who have been using them. 

Because ultimately that is what is happening. Marie is in love with Floraine, and Floraine is, I think, genuinely interested in Marie. But she is not at a point in her life where she is going to pursue that. She will ask Marie to fuck her, she will let Marie make out with her, but she is going to go back on to the dance floor with the boys because she has a reputation to maintain. 

Though their friendship goes through a rough patch, and though I do think that Anne forgave Marie for too much too quickly, I love that we ended this film on their friendship. #brosbeforehoes

Favorite Quote 

“Imagine the number of people with ceilings in their eyes” 

Score 

8/10

Shout out to Adèle Haenel, she has done so much for lesbianism. 

Up Next: Rafiki (2018)

[shesrllycool]

Pauline Acquart 👗

[myclothescarrystories]

spotted : Pauline Acquart from Naissance des Pieuvres pulling off the iconique bleu de travail!

[hungryfictions]

I want it to be you, Marie… then it will be real.

Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)

[90sagony]

#232 Domestic studies: Water Lilies (2007)

[fr-omis]

Khalma Kha-Labrezzo

[lullabiesinaglasswilderness]

[dykemuseum]

[lilith-salammbo]

Céline Sciamma

[p349756]

The movie that shaped my adolescence, and the movie which my adolescence is shaped after.

I will never forget this movie, and i will never forget how this movie makes me feel. Salty tears and salty hands, fingers, sour apples, bitter grudges, and sweet cherry lipstick. Basic petrichor earth, to chlorine poolwater, and a stunted atmosphere. It's like a cloudy, humid day, in all but a bleak, and boring, oh how boring, place; it all echoes under the heavy concrete "préaux". Though, the sun never sets; if you're lucky, maybe, it will, around 10pm.

And yet there's this overbearing, teeming, daft and severe youth, that only seeks one or two specific things, and there's aimless nostalgia everywhere, all around those brittle plastic chairs and cups; about what it was, about what i never had, what i wish i had, and about what i wish that hadn't happened. This film is so quiet, it doesn't want anything from me; making it so close to my heart... It's my little thing, i can't really explain it!

I've waited for more than a whole year to pass in order to rewatch this, hoping it would feel the same as it did the first time that i had seen it; it's been a total of 15 months, around 450 days, between april 14th 2021 and july 14th 2022. Unfortunately, in the meantime, i have grown up, matured, even within the tight span of a year; i'm not the same My Name as the one who first saw this film; i'm not the same hurt, deluded, yearning, teenage girl. It feels like a million years ago. Nevertheless, it's just a part of it all; it only makes my silly nostalgia stronger, it leaves me dreaming about what could've been different, even in now forgotten, fossilized, archaic feelings.

Repost of my 2022 review, i promised you i would rewatch this!