Synopsis
Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie, 2013) is a French drama from François Ozon you can watch online on iFILM. Ozon splits the story into four seasons, each opened by a Françoise Hardy song that marks another stage in a girl's coming of age.
Isabelle (Marina Vacth) is seventeen when she loses her virginity on a summer holiday, almost coolly, like ticking a box. Back in Paris she begins a hidden life, meeting older men in hotel rooms without her family suspecting a thing. The money matters to her less than the experiment itself; she stays detached from the men who pay, as if testing the limits of her own desire and theirs. Then one regular client dies in a hotel room, and her double life is dragged into the open.
This isn't provocation so much as a study of teenage remoteness, the camera staying close to Vacth's face and refusing to judge. Charlotte Rampling turns up late for a single scene that makes the wait worthwhile. One for viewers who like restrained European drama that withholds easy answers. Stream Young & Beautiful (2013) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0