Sadly Over-hyped

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This thesis film (a long "short" at 40 some minutes) by actress/director Emmanuelle Bercort is startling UNoriginal in concept as far French cinema goes. A bratty 14-year-old girl meets an older man while on vacation at the beach. Later they hook up in his Parisian apartment, and after several false starts, he "makes her a woman". Even given that this was directed by a female and told decidedly from the point of view of the girl still makes this stereotypically French. Gallic feminist director Catherine Breillet has pretty much made this exact film at least three times with "Une Vrai Jeune Fille", "36 Fillete", and "To My Sister (Fat Girl)". At least Bercort can't be considered guilty of holding any double-standards since she also later directed and starred in the feature "Clement" where she herself plays a middle-aged woman who seduces a teenage boy.The cinematography of this film is interesting. It's shot on highly de-saturated color stock that almost approaches black and white at times. Visually the beach scenes at the beginning of the film are stronger than the bulk of the film that takes place in a cramped Paris apartment. But the most interesting part of the film, both visually and otherwise, is the amazing and beautiful young French actress Isild Le Besco. Isild is the less famous younger sister of director/actress Maiwenn Le Besco, who married Luc Besson as a teenager, and though she's principally a middle-aged director nowadays, still seems to send male film critics into paroxysms of lust, even at press conferences for her films. Well, more people really ought get a load of her SISTER, who has equally exotic, but strangely different, looks (Maiwenn looks like a voluptuous man-eater, Isild like a shy, sensitive girl next door) and an absolutely stunning body that, unlike her older sister, she has not been the least bit shy about showing off every centimeter of in her movies. She was only about 16 or 17 in this (her debut) role, but she is pretty much the Platonic ideal of the pretty, sexually precocious teenage girl. And watching her character get slowly deflowered, even in a tame and arty short with only brief nudity, is really memorable.Of course, Le Besco's assured ACTING even at this young age is also quite impressive. She doesn't come across so much as an emerging talent as an already formidable one that has seemingly sprung fully-formed from the womb. This was Bercourt's debut film and calling-card as a director, but it is Isild Lebesco who really owns it.

About the title, the French word "puce" has a double meaning: "sweetie" or "virgin girl". This short movie (40 min) was the "Diploma work" of Emmanuelle Bercot when she studied movie direction at the FEMIS, the French school of cinema (formerly EDHEC).Marion, 14 yo, the age of the teenage years rebellions, is on holidays with her mother at the sea. She feels moved by the interest she arouses in an older man. She decides to meet him in Paris and to "take the plunge". So, another Lolita-like flick or some French "American Beauty"? Not at all, contrary to the former ones, Emmanuelle Bercot takes the point of view of the girl. She elaborates that subject with both delicacy and realism. Here they are neither nice flowers nor honeyed music, the cinematography is restrained, no bright colors, the image is almost black and white, the camera work very accurate. It's one of the first noticed performance of Isild Le Besco, 17 yo at that time, totally convincing in that very young girl character, her curiosity, her hesitancy. You'll notice that impressive and moving shot of Marion checking her body, looking for THE change in it. But IMHO, the last 20 seconds close-up ending the movie is a bit unconvincing, but I'm maybe nitpicking...

What I love about Euro-cinema, and what makes it totally unfit for US audiences, is it's gritty realism when it comes to gender relations. Take, for example, this movie, and compare it with something like "American beauty", which treats a similar topic: a man hitting on a teenage girl. Here, the charm and comedy that made "American Beauty" the mainstream success that it is gets discarded for a gritty realism. Marion, the love interest, is all of 14 years old, and where "American..." shys away from actually having Lester Burnham go all the way, this movies unrepentant "Marc" has no such reservations. But neither he nor she nor director Emmanuelle Bercot pass judgment on the act, which is displayed with all the awkwardness, cajolery and qualms than one might expect from the situation. French cinema usually has a very tolerant view of sexual relations, and this movie is a prime example.