Review of Young & Beautiful (2013) by Harry W — 30 Apr 2014

Since the trailer for Young & Beautiful suggested that it would tackle some complicated sexual themes as well as some coming of age issues, it was a film I was certainly eager to witness.

Watching Young & Beautiful, I found myself constantly comparing it to the recent French film Blue is the Warmest Colour as both films explored female characters as they are coming of age and as they begin to get a grip on their sexual identity. Both films even depicted their female protagonists engaging in masturbation early on in the film as well as other things. Although Young & Beautiful explored its protagonist's foray into prostitution while Blue is the Warmest Colour showed its protagonist as she enters a serious lesbian relationship and gets a grip on who she is. But I must say that Blue is the Warmest Colour is largely superior film for many reasons. In contrast to Young & Beautiful, Blue is the Warmest Colour was consistent on its narrative path and ensured that it's complicated characters were dealt with properly at a gentle pace over the course of its 3 hour running time. In Young & Beautiful, the film goes through many time skips, ranging from the normal time period skips in many films to sudden jumps to the next season. The problem is that by making seasonal jumps it leaves out a lot in between, such as how between Summer and Autumn Isabelle transitioned into becoming a prostitute. All the seasonal jumps take their toll on the development of the characters and the general structure of the story's development, and it leaves things scattered.

The other problem that combines with the plot structure in Young & Beautiful is that at the end of most of the plot jumps there is a new theme for the film to deal with. One minute it's about Isabelle losing her virginity, then it's about her prostituting herself. Next minute it's suddenly about her ambiguous relationship with her father, the extramarital affair of her mother, a complicated relationship with her boyfriend and several other elements. Director Francois Ozon attempts to fit too many themes into Young and Beautiful without giving the film sufficient focus to honestly explore them well, and so the feature ends up being way too scattered and poorly focused to work and it really just collapses under its own plot structure. I walked away from Young & Beautiful trying to figure out what Francois Ozon was saying with his film, but I just kept on drawing blanks. I think it is likely that madscxny people will walk away from Young & Beautiful confused by its constant ambiguity and the fact that its ending attempts to justify itself with melancholy by stating it in the script. But it just isn't sufficiently effective plotting and it raises more questions than it handsets without giving viewers sufficient material for dthem to answer it themselves. The more I thought aboutssocuch the experience of Young & Beautiful, the less I really appreciated it. So while it's story has potential, it deserves a better handling than Fracois Ozon gives it. All he does is prove to be able to display his ambition and potential. But his high-concept plot is flawed due to poor execution and an excess of ambition without sufficient thought.

Young & Beautiful doesn't prove to be everything it can, but it does have some positive elements.

For one thing, the characters are interesting. There are a lot of complicated characters in Young & Beautiful and although the film doesn't balance out a focus of all of them as well as it should, its focus on lead character Isabelle is interesting and attempts to involve viewers deeply with it. Although it doesn't explore the way that Isabelle's mind functions or her motives all that well, the story makes her interesting and strongly focuses on ensuring that the viewers are fascinated by the journey she takes. The first half of the film is depicted very well, particularly the entire summer sequence because of how it focuses all on Isabelle. It reveals how she feels during her first sexual encounter by showing her face as it all happens to reveal the lack of pleasure she experiences, and later on it reveals the blood around her genitals from having her hymen busted. A lot of films forget to include that in the scenes where its female characters engage in sexual intercourse for the first time, but Young & Beautiful does not forget.

And there is a lot of memorable imagery in Young & Beautiful. Considering the way that the cinematography zeroes in on Isabelle, it keeps the focus consistently on her. And the sexually based sequences maintain a sense of eroticism due to the close up and stylish angles that it takes. It is all edited stylishly as well and captures a lot of nice French scenery, and the visual traits of the film are played out against the backdrop of an effective soundtrack.

But overall, the best aspect of Young & Beautiful is Marine Vacth's lead performance as the titular Young & Beautiful woman. At age 23, she manages to perfectly change back and fourth between playing a 17 year old woman and one with the illusion of being 20. The small difference is thanks to the costuming and makeup, and when combined with the skilfully image of Marine Vacth, it is all thoroughly convincing. Combining the woman's natural beauty with her skilful acting abilities, Marine Vacth gives a lead performance more worthy of the film that it deserved. Marine Vacth manages to really easily capture the mood of Isabelle by giving her a certain kind of melancholy which becomes present after her innocence is shattered in an unsatisfying sexual encounter. From there, her confusions unravel and the issues that come with her finding her sexual identity unravel. Marine Vacth consistently capture the complex emotional state which Isabelle faces as she goes through a life of secrecy and confusion, and her impressive lead performance is one that is hard to forget. She constantly keeps her emotions restrained and inside her but clear to the audience so that it is a realistic effort which is also compelling. Young & Beautiful serves as a front for the immense sex appeal of Marine Vacth and just what kind of talented skills she boasts in the lead role, and the way that she conjures up her emotions and engages with the surrounding cast members and the material in the story with ease, so she is arguably the most memorable and positive part of Young & Beautiful.

Frà (C)dà (C)ric Pierrot and Gà (C)raldine Pailhas also give firm supporting performances.

But despite the strong lead performance of Marine Vacth and some strong ambition, Francois Ozon overloads Young & Beautiful with too many questions and not enough answers or a decent plot structure to satisfy viewers and it is likely to leave audiences confused and unsure what the film was saying.