Breathe (Respire)
Film Movement
Reviewed by: Tami Smith, Guest Reviewer for Shockya.
Grade: B+
Director: Mélanie Laurent
Screenwriter: Mélanie Laurent, Julien Lambroschini
Based on: Breathe (Respire), a novel by Anne-Sophie Brasme
Cast: Joséphine Japy, Lou de Laâge, Isabelle Carré, Radivoje Bukvic, Carole Franck
Release date: September 11, 2015
I once knew a High School student who never stopped raving about the fact that his “father was a medical doctor, his mother was a psychiatrist, he had a German Shepard dog, and an aunt in Romania ”. He later became a “general manager in a large book store in New Jersey” and a “sky diver in Nevada”. In reality none of the above was true.
A similar situation is described in Breathe, a French drama, scheduled for theatrical release on September 11, 2015. The film tells the story of Charlie (Joséphine Japy), a seventeen-year old high school student in a small French town. Her parents (Isabelle Carré and Radivoje Bukvic) are on a verge of divorce and Charlie is bored. Things brighten up when a new student arrives, named Sarah (Lou de Laâge). She is a bright a bushy-tailed teen with many stories to tell. She visited London and Nigeria, where her mother is now stationed. She returned to France to finish her High School studies and now lives with her aunt. Charlie and Sarah develop a close friendship, even intimacy. Sarah helps insecure Charlie to spice up her life, dress and have fun, and at one point she even joins Charlie and her mother for vacation. Things turn deadly downhill after Charlie finds out that Sarah’s mother is an alcoholic, living in a downscale apartment house, and Sarah having gotten tired of Charlie, starts looking for new friends at school.
Director Mélanie Laurent conducts this 91-minute drama at a leisurely pace, getting terrific performances from the two leads. Joséphine Japy gives Charlie the seriousness of a shy girl, subjected to moods and unsteady family life, who turns her love and jealousy emotions up a notch. Lou de Laâge, in the role of Sarah, exposes the life of a young woman on verge of adulthood who lives on lies and great imagination. Good supporting performances are provided by Isabelle Carré as Charlie’s mother, a woman who is trying to start over after a bad first marriage, and Radivoje Bukvic as Charlie’s father, who keeps having extra marital affairs.
Arnaud Potier shot Breathe in Béziers, a town in southern France. Maïra Ramedhan Levi provided conservative costumes for the character of Charlie and sexier ones for the character of Sarah.
Unrated. 91 minutes. © Tami Smith, Guest Reviewer
Story: B
Acting: B+
Technical: B
Overall: B+
