'Jeune et Jolie' ('Young and Beautiful' to use its English title), from director François Ozon, is about a seventeen year-old girl who, shortly after being deflowered in an unsatisfactory encounter with a young man on holiday, is approached by an older man who offers her money for sex. Still curious about sex, she agrees and embarks on a new career as a prostitute, involving sexual encounters with a succession of older and flabbier men (this is the kind of film only the French would make in such a matter-of-fact manner!) But when one of her clients succumbs to the old 'heart-attack-while-having-sex' comedy routine, the subsequent police investigation reveals her activities to her horrified family and friends.
Marine Vacth does a nice job as the girl, bringing a bit more life to the part of a young woman who finds amusement in selling her body than might some other young French actresses (it is too easy to imagine many of them going the 'monotone delivery whilst staring into the middle distance' route in an effort to portray typical French film ennui). Also well worth a mention is Géraldine Pailhas as her mother, struggling to understand her daughter's decision. Even Charlotte Rampling, who turns up towards the end as the dead man's widow, is a bit livelier than usual, continuing the good work she started in Australian film 'The Eye of the Storm'.
Marine Vacth does a nice job as the girl, bringing a bit more life to the part of a young woman who finds amusement in selling her body than might some other young French actresses (it is too easy to imagine many of them going the 'monotone delivery whilst staring into the middle distance' route in an effort to portray typical French film ennui). Also well worth a mention is Géraldine Pailhas as her mother, struggling to understand her daughter's decision. Even Charlotte Rampling, who turns up towards the end as the dead man's widow, is a bit livelier than usual, continuing the good work she started in Australian film 'The Eye of the Storm'.