UNA BRILLIANT GIRL
Type: generational-sociological comedy
Direction: Agathe Riedinger. With Malou Khebizi, Idira Zougli, Andréa Bescond, Ashley Romano, Alexis Manenti, Kilia Fernane, Alexandra Noisier
The protagonist of the film by French newcomer Agathe Riedinger is a nineteen year old who has already had her lips and breasts done (the character’s name is intended as a tribute to Liane de Pougy, a “demi-mondaine” of the Belle Époque who used her beauty as a weapon to make her way into society).
She also wants to make it big but she doesn’t even know whereand sees being called up for reality TV Miracle Island like the opportunity of a lifetime. We will only know at the end whether she was chosen or not, but in the meantime we see the effect of that “dream” on her, where social media responses (and TikTok in particular) are more important than real life and her desire to stand out pushes her to make choices she might regret.
Malou Khebizi, right, in the film “A Brilliant Girl” by Agathe Riedinger.
The director-screenwriter prefers to accumulate ideas and digressions rather than construct a more linear narrative (the conflictual relationship with the mother, the narcissistic one with her friends, the different aspects of a male desire that can also take aggressive or humiliating paths), but, thanks also to the interpreter, the portrait of a young woman condemned to be a “slave” of her own fantasies and willing to humiliate even her own youth she comes out with great strength.
For those who want to discover an aspect of female fragility.
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