Review of Fat Girl (2001) by Alex L — 23 Jul 2008

Fat Girl (2001).

I recently watched Fat Girl in the comfort of my own home, knowing very little about it. I had no previous experience with Catherine Breillatâ??s films, but knew going into watching this that she dealt heavily with themes of sexuality and interpersonal struggle. I was attracted to the film because of its acerbic title and my own interest in the portrayal of beauty in literature.

It is a rather sad story about two sisters: Elena (Roxane Mesquida), 15, pretty, confident, and Anais (Anais Reboux), 12, overweight, friendless it seems. Elena and Anais are the daughters of a workaholic businessman (Romain Goupil) and a less-than-doting mother. The film takes place during a vacation that the family is having. The two sisters spend time discussing love and sex prior to Elena meeting a random man, Fernando (Libero de Riezno). Elena and the man hit it off rather quickly and he comes to visit her during the night. Anais watches on as Fernando courts Elena into anal sex and eventually into vaginal intercourse. Fernando claims he wants to marry Elena and gives her a ring that he pilfered from his mother. They are found out and the family immediately leaves their vacation.

The first thing that interested me about the film is how little attention is paid to Anais and her struggles. Much of the film takes place within the confines of the room that Elena and Anais share, however, we only see Anais in glimpses. Breillat chooses to focus most of her energy on Elena and her naïve attempt to become involved with this man, who obviously only has sexual conquest on his mind. In that way, the audience begins to get more interested in Elenaâ??s story rather than Anaisâ??. Although Anais is present throughout much of the movie, she is largely disregarded.

This had the same effect on me that No Country For Old Men (2007) did, in that the audience becomes solely interested in the chase among the more â??desirableâ??, younger cast of characters than it does in the struggle of the old-time cop, about to be put out to pasture. I think Breillat was looking for this alienating effect on the audience. We donâ??t necessarily care about Anaisâ?? struggles because Elenaâ??s are given more time and seem, at least on the surface, to have more depth than Anaisâ??.

I also found it interesting how Anaisâ?? vice of overeating is shown in the film and given great significance but at the same time, the audience is less aware of the vices of the rest of the cast of characters. Elena needs the attention of men to feel beautiful and as such, she seeks out men readily (as Anais says, the only thing that Elena doesnâ??t do is sleep around). The sistersâ?? father is a workaholic and is given the least screentime of any of the major cast of characters. His absence is more powerful than his presence. He cares very little for his children and his wife and would rather be working than on vacation. Their mother chain smokes constantly, almost as if the pressure of dealing with family life and civility are too much for her and she longs for something else, some sort of escape. Fernandoâ??s vice is that of sexual conquest and his entrapment of self in supposed masculinity.

I find it rather odd how fast the relationship escalated between Elena and Fernando. Over the course of a day or a couple of days it seems, they go from meeting at a table to contemplating sexual intimacy to consummating the deed. I wonder if this is a commentary by Breillat on one, the effect of sexual naiveté of young girls in comparison to the sex-hungry, over-masculinized male and two, the overall outlook on what a relationship is between males and females.

Elena says, upon Fernando leaving the first time theyâ??ve spent the night together, â??I would just die if you had said [you wouldnâ??t come back because we didnâ??t have sex]â?? This shows her willingness to comply with his wishes to have sex so long as she can still have his affection. And of course, the selfishness that is implicit in Fernandoâ??s giving of the stolen ring to her overwhelms her desire to stay a virgin unless she actually loves someone. She is blinded by what seems to be a thoughtful gift.

Elena and Anaisâ?? relationship seems oddly structured, but may be the result of supposed sibling rivalry. When Elena is around Fernando or their parents, she is absolutely dreadful to Anais and when they are alone together, they giggle about everything going on in their lives. It is as if Elena must put up a façade in front of other people so as to attain more attention from them, rather than people giving attention Anais (which Elena sees as a threat to her own attention). This is best affirmed when the two sisters first meet Fernando. Anais, knowing that there are no available tables, sits down next to Fernando and begins to speak to him. Elena becomes angry not that Anais is sitting with a random stranger, but that she (Anais) did not allow Elena to sit next to the stranger. Elena subtly demands that Anais get up and sit across the table. Although her forthrightness is an admirable quality, Anais is soon replaced in Fernandoâ??s mind by the attractive sister with nothing in her head.

One scene that I find myself at a loss for is the scene in which Elena and Fernando have sex. During this scene, though it mimics the earlier scene in which he convinces her to have anal sex by saying â??it doesnâ??t countâ??, more attention is paid to Anaisâ?? reaction to the encounter. Cuts seem more pronounced and they occur more often than they had in the scene previous. The source of question in this scene for me is Anaisâ?? crying about whatâ??s happening.

I wonder why she is crying. Is she sad that her big sister has been duped into sex and doesnâ??t know it? Is she sad because Fernando didnâ??t pick her? Is she said because it seems as if the only things that find her interesting are inanimate objects in the pool? Does she need the same amount of attention as Elena? Is she simply upset because their moaning is keeping her awake? I tend to lean toward a combination of all of the above, however, that belies the fact that there must be some central reason for her crying.

The other obvious source of controversy and questioning about this film comes from the ending, a rapid twist in stark contrast to the rest of the filmâ??s very slow, objective portrayal of these events. My first reaction was something akin to the feeling I got when watching the ending to Manoel de Oliveiraâ??s A Talking Picture (2003). The majority of both films are spent wading through dialog-heavy scenes with little taking place so that their endings seem substantially more violent and shocking than they would have without the eighty-or-so minutes of talking. Furthermore, the fact that both end very abruptly on a freeze-frame ties the endings together.

My second reaction was one that I think may be unique to my own viewing: I wondered if it even happened. I think it may be possible that Anais dreamt the entire thing up in the car as the three women rested at the rest stop. Both her overwhelming desire to be accepted and her use of imagination to live in the world she wanted to were shown in the previous scene in the pool, where she goes back and forth between the deck and pool railing, kissing each, putting them at odds to one another, and ultimately creating a fight for her attention in her head. Couldnâ??t that same logic be applied to the ending murder/sex scene? Couldnâ??t she have projected her own wants and needs onto the situation?

Regardless of whether it happened in her head or in reality, the other question of this particular scene arises: was she raped or not? I contend with the latter because as she herself said early in the movie, she would like her first time to be with someone that she didnâ??t love. That way, at the end, there would be no worrying as to whether or not they loved each other. In that sense, she wanted a complete stranger to take her virginity. She seemed at ease with the experience, asking only, â??are you going to hurt me?â?? Furthermore, aside from doing what, in my opinion, she wanted someone to do, he didnâ??t hurt her. This is affirmed when she tells the police that she was not raped but that they didnâ??t have to believe her. She knew and/or thought up how she felt about the situation.

The film is definitely worthy of study and a difficult one to come up with a definitive thesis about. Its themes of love, sisterhood, sexual naiveté, and the want for attention are certainly all human themes that all people struggle with. Ultimately, however, I feel that like in life, this film poses many questions but leaves most if not all of the answers up to the viewers.