Water Lilies by Céline Sciamma

When does a girl become ‘mature’ ? What happens to the soul when the body changes ? The debut film of young French director Céline Sciamma, Water Lilies, approaches these questions in a sympathetic way by telling the story of three 15-year-old girls.

It’s the summer holidays. No school obligations or parental control for Marie, Anne and Floriane, whose only occupations are synchronised swimming and the discovery of first loves and hormonal impulses. The world of the teenagers seems simple and quiet. Communications technologies that so often play a big role in the life of youngsters are absent here. This creates a particular, old-fashioned atmosphere, also bringing added depth to the characters, which develop in the blue of the swimming pool.

The story is constructed of triangular relationships between the characters. Lovely-looking Floriane is the object of desire for many men. Due to her unwillingness to socialise with her team-mates at the swimming pool, she is given the label of an outsider, a girl who “sleeps around”, something which she is not. Floriane demonstrates a girlish sensibility. Anxious to maintain a happy relationship with her boyfriend, she however becomes vulnerable to outer influences. She tends to confuse true feelings with her adolescent impulses, and eventually follows the expectations of those around her by trying to fit into the role of the “easy” girl. Thus, she betrays her new friend Marie, who has little by little fallen in love with Floriane, but finds herself used and then abandoned.

On her side, Marie provides the link to Floriane’s opposite : the joyful and childish, but unappealingly overweight Anne, who inevitably falls into a love triangle with Floriane and her boyfriend. On their way to becoming adults, Marie and Anne discover the unpleasant experiences of being misunderstood, neglected and having their feelings abused. The three girls go through the chaotic experience of first love and desire. Fortunately, Anne has the will to understand it and not to give herself up. In the end, she and Marie are the only ones who have truly been in love and have tried to follow their inner voices. Both of them go through a real transformation and grow up, at the cost of certain emotional wounds. This is a thought-provoking film, leaving the viewer with plenty to reflect on afterwards.

Elena Mosholova