Cheap 36 Fillette (DVD) (Delphine Zentout, Etienne Chicot, Olivier Parnière) (Catherine Breillat) Price

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Customer Reviews of 36 Fillette

"I want to matter."
The film "36 Fillette" (which refers to a size of French female clothing) from director Catherine Breillat is bound to outrage some viewers with its controversial content. It's the story of a 14 year-old French girl named Lili (Delphine Zentout) who is on holiday with her hideous family. Thrown together in a small space with the theory that they are there to have a good time, they are soon at each other's throats. Lili, who doesn't even try to hide the contempt she has for her parents, persuades her brother to take her to a disco. The siblings depart with the idea that the older brother is in charge, but once away from her parents, Lili makes it clear that no-one is going to restrain her in any way. Lili's hitchhiking leads them to meet a middle-aged, jaded playboy named Maurice (Etienne Chicot). Lili's provocative behaviour is aimed at getting Maurice's attention, and she certainly manages to do just that. And so an odd relationship between Lili and Maurice begins.

Lili practices her new-found feminine wiles on several men in the film. She very quickly gets the hang of it, though, and she progresses rapidly from the pathetically and frankly obvious and becomes slyly manipulative. On one level, she is just a child, and pouts and throws tantrums when things don't go as she intended. But on the other hand, she is also at core an extremely hardened person. Maurice, naturally, as the morally reprehensible older man, pulls the strings, but sympathy is out-of-place for Lili's character, for she's unpleasant and as tough-as-nails. It is easy to immediately dismiss this film. One has the distinct impression that Lili is just gearing up with Maurice, honing her skills, and getting ready for the next one. It is easy to shake one's head, and tut tut about Maurice corrupting Lili with the disappointing and simultaneously pathetic introduction to sex, but if it's possible to put judgement aside, there is a great character study here. Is Maurice using Lili? Is Lili using Maurice, or are they using each other? The acting is excellent, and the family scenes are particularly delicious. The DVD quality was not the best, however. Many scenes were a bit murky. If you enjoyed the films "Lolita," "Beau Pere" and "The Disenchanted," there is an excellent chance that you'll enjoy this film.--displacedhuman.

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Curiously unsatisfying, but not bad...
I first saw this film in an arthouse cinema when it was released, and I remember feeling that the film seemed a bit unsatisfying. I was rather hoping that Lili would actually make love to her much-older beau, but they seemed to be limited to hand jobs and oral sex (the first time she finally appears nude, late in the film, this is all they do; she hides under the bedsheets while he disappears with some other woman, and she is left, naked and crying, in the bed).

Yet this is a decent film, and not the unbridled kiddie porn that so many reviewers here might have had it be (although I'm really thinking of "The Lover," I believe Delphine Zentout had to be at least 18 at the time the film was shot). What I find fascinating about these films is the fact that I know women whose sexual development is much like those of the female leads in these films. Lili even reminds me, now, of my fiancee in both physical and sexual aspect and, to some degree, psychological aspect. She (Lili) is a troubled girl with a deep and rarely satisfied desire to break free of her family, and her sexual pursuits provide her what little relief she can find, even on holiday.

Definitely worth a look.

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Good film, terrible transfer
Fox Lorber seems determined to make viewing their DVD transfers hard work. Their murky, dim DVDs are particularly frustrating, since many of their titles are truly wonderful foreign films. This picture, 36 FILLETTE, is touted as a "French LOLITA," but in many ways, is more reminiscent of [movie title] The young heroine has a grating perverse streak (only blind-and-deaf lust can explain why her older suitor doesn't bind and gag her mid-tirade), but she's nonetheless touching and real; all her anger and venom seem mere cover for a palpable sense of longing. Director Briellat, as usual, rushes into areas of female sexuality where angels fear to tread, here with moving results. The heroine's sly smile in the film's final frame's earned, and you're glad for her. Persevere through this lousy transfer; the picture's worth it.