User Reviews

"Clément" is about the erotic relationship between a 13-year-old boy and a 30-something-year-old woman. This relationship is initiated by the boy, Clément, who falls in love with the Godmother of one of his friends. She, Marion, is at first reluctant, then becomes curious and finally gives in to Clément's wish to spend a weekend together. Here a sexual relationship begins, whose character is not clear at first. When Marion caresses the boy's body and moves toward his genitals, he flees and locks himself into the bathroom, but the next night he stays. We still are not sure whether his flight the previous night was the shyness of the first time or had other reasons. As the relationship evolves, Marion becomes more and more obsessed with Clément. The boy instinctively realizes that and starts to make bolder demands while at the same time becoming more independent. Finally he wants to enlarge the distance between himself and Marion. Yet she has become so addicted that she does not allow that. She even forces him into her car and tries to perform oral sex on him, which he - after several unsuccessful attempts finally - can prevent. Clément eventually manages to dissolve the relationship again. In the end, he tears up a final letter from Marion, turns to the camera and looks the viewers straight in the eye. Then his hand blocks the view. Seen in retrospect, it becomes clear that the movie is about child molestation and abuse. Clément's initial interest in Marion was the falling in love of puberty, which is better served by respectful acknowledgment and tender attention than by full-fledged sexual activity. As the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that Marion is completely immature and irresponsible and in fact abuses Clément's tender affection for selfish reasons. His flight to the bathroom was not shyness but self-protection out of which he was then cheated. This was certainly not a game for Clément, it was his first love that was misunderstood and exploited; in the process he was robbed of his adolescence. That he was able to finally end this relationship seems almost miraculous. Clément's intense look into the lens before shutting viewers out, asks them in how far they have become voyeurs to this journey by watching the movie. The film is thought-provoking and thoughtful, not giving easy answers to difficult problems, and might also be open for a different interpretation than mine. One thing, however, seemed very problematic to me: I could not find out the age of Clément's actor. If he was, as the character he played, 13 years old, one might ask whether playing the role he played was not a similar experience for him, as his encounter with Marion was for Clément. And one could wonder whether this film might not be watched by many people for the wrong reasons.

Emmanuelle Bercot the director and star of this French film of a not particularly attractive, over-sexed thirty-something who does everything to wear out her welcome as completely sensible adult and an outlandish artist who apparently is over-compensated and does not have enough dignity or anything else more interesting to do to keep herself from corrupting a minor, a 13 year old boy named "Clement." She uses cinema verite "peep show"-like home movie style to fashion a "too long" both as a film and a statement on her subject look at something degrading to anyone with serious pretexts as a responsible artist. Made in 2001, it is one more reason to be ashamed of today's film-making industry that would give an award to something so repulsive and morally bankrupt.