JEUNE ET JOLIE/ YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL
France, 2013, 95 minutes, Colour.
Marine Vacht, Geraldine Pailhas, Fantin Ravat, Charlotte Rampling.
Directed by François Ozon.
The title is very direct and it refers to the daughter of a family, Isabelle, played by the young and beautiful Marine Vacht.
The film is the work of director François Ozon, a versatile director, considered one of the foremost of French directors, noted for his ability to work with female actors and with female themes. There is a cameo at the end of this film with Charlotte Rampling who appeared in his films, Under the Sand and The Swimming Pool.
At the beginning of the film, Isabelle is at the coast with her family on holidays. The audience sees that she has some preoccupation with sexuality, experimenting, and arranging for a tourist on holidays for an encounter where she can lose her virginity. She seems quite precocious for her age – as does her much younger brother in whom she confides.
With the transition to going back after the holidays, we see her at home and at school, but we also see her going to hotel, going up to a room, and meeting with a very elderly man. She has conversation and then a sexual encounter. In fact, she has quite a number of clients, not having any relationship with them, just the sexual behaviour and the money, including some rough treatment which does not give her any pause in this work as a prostitute.
Later, there is a crisis with the old man and he dies. The inexperienced Isabelle is at a loss as to what to do, tries to revive him but leaves him, neglecting to remember that she appears on the hotel surveillance cameras. This brings the police, and shock, especially to her mother, who does not know how to deal with the situation, relying on her calm husband, Isabelle’s stepfather.
It is only then that the audience finds out how Isabelle became involved in the prostitution, watching a television program that gave her the idea, setting up a website and her clients finding her online. The police urge her to go to a psychiatrist, which she does, but we would wonder whether she would get much benefit from these meetings and whether her behaviour would change. She says it would, but the audience is still in doubt.
With the change in sexual mores in the 21st century, this scenario does not seem as implausible as it might have seemed even 50 years ago. To that extent, the film dramatises for an audience who may be wondering about sexuality and behaviour in the young, a story of that both emphasises the sexuality as well as the risks and consequences of such behaviour.
1. The title? The focus on Isabelle? Her age, experience? Audience response to her, to her as young and beautiful, to her behaviour, her crises, her psychological state?
2. The work of François Ozon? His skills in directing women and women’s stories?
3. The summer holiday, the coast, the house, the family on holidays? The contrast with the city, home, school? The hotels? Psychologist rooms? Police precincts? The musical score?
4. The film as a psychosexual portrait of Isabelle? 16, turning 17? Her relationship with her parents? With her stepfather (in the several occasions when he comes across her naked)? The younger brother, friendship with him, talk, getting him to cover for her going out unbeknownst to her parents? Her being frank with him? Her own sexuality, the masturbation sequence? The effect on her? Her friendship with the boys, discussing them with her brother? Coming to visit the house? From other countries of Europe, language and accents? Going to the party? Propositioning the young man, the sexual encounter, his consideration but also his being casual? The effect on Isabelle? Her return home? Discussions with her brother?
5. At home after the holiday, introduction to her behaviour – and the explanation left to later? Her encounter with the old man, going to the room at the hotel, the sexual experience, her prostitution? Dress, behaviour? The portrait of the other clients, no relationship with them? Lying about her age? Rough treatment and its effect? Going home, the cash, hiding it at home? Not wanting to go to the theatre, the chance meeting with the older man, meeting later, his explanation about himself, at the theatre with his daughter? The conversation? The sexual experience, his death and its effect on her, trying to revive him, leaving the corpse in the hotel? Her being seen on the hotel surveillance cameras?
6. The police, coming to home, the enquiry, the discussion with Isabelle’s mother, her shock, with Isabelle herself, talking with her husband? Her daughter’s surly response? Her brother in the know? Her being a minor and therefore to be considered a victim rather than as a prostitute?
7. The portrait of Isabelle’s mother, who relate with her husband, her former husband, the ups and downs in her relationship with her daughter? The stepfather and his reaction, trying to give wise advice? His wife and her continued upset, his attempts to become?
8. Victor and the effect of Isabelle’s behaviour on him? His own sexual curiosity?
9. The explanations, the flashbacks, the TV programs and Isabelle seeing them, the idea about prostitution, going online, creating a name and website?
Her clients through the website?
10. The police, taking things seriously, wanting her to get treatment?
11. Going to the psychiatrist, the discussions with him, his shrewd questions, her fending him off, how much effect?
12. Isabelle going once more to the hotel, to the same room, meeting the old man’s wife, her character, relationship with her husband, wanting to meet Isabelle, not upbraiding her for her behaviour or her husband’s death, lying on the bed with Isabelle, Isabelle going to sleep, the woman disappearing?
13. Isabelle waking, going back to her family, her future?
