Cheap Girls Can't Swim (DVD) (Isild Le Besco, Karen Alyx) (Anne-Sophie Birot) Price

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Customer Reviews of Girls Can't Swim

Superficial
Whatever happened to the glory days of French cinema like Truffaut, Godard etc, now replaced by unimaginative "realists" of the type represented in this movie. From the cardboard cutout characters to the inane "plot" this is a film that only teenage girls of 17 and a half could empathize with. This film doesn't tell you anything you haven't seen before in the "coming of age" category...oh, the confusion, the tears, the lousy sex, the intolerant parents etc etc. The only redeeming feature is the actresses who do a brave job with the atrocious screenplay.

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French movies, got to love them
I do own this film and I bought it after renting it for it's bizarre, unique plot that comes across as outright laughable sometimes. This is a coming of age film about two friends: a promiscuos teenager named Gwen who seems to wear the same pair of pants throughout the entire movie and her friend Lise.
They visit each other every summer and throughout the rest of the year they carry on a close correspondence. Lise has just bought a new bathing suit and is planning her trip back when tragedy strikes and her father dies. The bathing suit, I think is supposed to symbolize her entrance into womanhood, but unfortunately this bathing suit is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.
Her and Gwen begin to realize they are very different. First of all, Gwen likes sex, really likes it. She is caught in "the act" at least twice. Lise is disappointed because of how things have changed and she begins to bond instead with Gwen's father, which causes an even bigger rift between them. The film ends on such a laughably bizarre note that I had to give it kudos, because I didn't think it could get any more absurd.
If you buy this movie, it works as a coming of age film, even though it is a little melodramatic. Also, you need to take it with a grain of salt. I liked this movie because the plot was so stupid at times that I found it incredibly amusing. It is another one of those famous french movies, you know, with the 13-15 year old girl getting naked and demanding that a man, often twice her age, satisfy her. This film also does have some serious undertones, and if they had maybe just taken the melodrama down a couple of notches, the message would be a lot clearer.

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Haven't I seen this somewhere before?
A French coming-of-age art film that I rented while on vacation. Despite rave reviews all over the packaging, this story of two moody teenage girls growing apart as sexuality enters their lives seemed pretty slow and predictable, even a bit tedious. Jet lag set in and we gave up two-thirds of the way through the film, and took it back the next day. In all fairness, this is probably a fine film if you're in the mood for Serious Art, but I found it a bit dreary.