French filmmaker Celine Sciamma's debut feature, “Water Lilies,” is notable for one chief reason: boys. They're almost nonexistent in this soft-spoken drama of adolescent sexual awakening.
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“Water Lilies”
Rated: Not rated
Opens: Tomorrow
Running time: 1 hr., 25 min.
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Oh, they're there, in all their hormonal glory. It's just that they take a back seat to the three girls around whom Sciamma's tale revolves. The film's only prominent male character, a teenager named Francois (Warren Jacquin), appears primarily as an object of longing, jealousy and confusion, depending on the girl. That dynamic makes for a fascinating exploration of female friendship, love, manipulation, betrayal and healing.
Marie (Pauline Acquart) is the film's protagonist. Boyish and gangly, she's best friends with Anne (Louise Blachere), a chubby member of an amateur synchronized swimming team who dreams of kissing (actually, quite a bit more than kissing) Francois, the local heartthrob. Handsome and athletic, Francois is way out of Anne's league. What's more, he's interested in Floriane (Adele Haenel), the gorgeous captain of another synchronized swimming squad.
The problem is, Marie's interested in Floriane, too.
Interested? Try obsessed. Marie rummages through Floriane's garbage, sniffing her used tissues and taking a bite of one of her discarded apples. Not humiliating enough? At first, Floriane merely uses Marie as a cover whenever Floriane wants to slip away from her parents for a makeout session with Francois. But their lopsided relationship evolves into something deeper.
Meanwhile, Marie starts to drift from Anne, even as she and Floriane grow closer.
Writer-director Sciamma and her cast are at their best in evoking the fragile, inflated dramas of adolescence. Every slight is the end of the world; every minor triumph feels like ecstasy. It's a world where every emotion feels like the earth moving, and where the shifting tectonics of young lust and friendship, along with the lifelong lessons of a broken heart, have never felt more real.
