30 Second Bottom Line: A bold look at the dichotomy of two sisters thrust into the world of sexual awakening. Fat Girl is an uncompromising look at female adolescence by French director Catherine Breillat.

Story Line: Anais (Anais Reboux), a plump and redolent 12-year-old, is called "a lump…and fat" by her slender, pout-mouthed, though vapid 15-year-old sister, Elena (Roxane Mesquida). She is at best placated and at worst ignored by their unaware mother and father, Arsinee Khanjian and Romain Goupil.

The family is on summer vacation in the French countryside. They have a small, comfortable villa with a pool, where Anais enjoys swimming and spends time longingly kissing and caressing the railings on the pool ladder as she emulates what she's seen her older sister do with real boys. Anais's beautiful, inquisitive eyes watch Elena's every gesture. Elena is lovely and she carries it off with a flair of sophistication somewhat beyond her 15 years. At an outdoor café in the nearby town, Elena picks up an Italian law student, Fernando (Libero De Rienzo, who drives a hot two-seater convertible. The two of them want to be alone, so Anais is left to trudge back to the villa on her own. It's obvious she cares about her sister as she waits outside the gate for Elena before showing up at home alone.

Fernando is invited to dinner and makes a favorable impression on both parents. He's charming and the girls' father is pleased to hear he is in law school. Anais continues to fantasize about lovemaking, singing sad tormenting songs. Elena indulges in her erotic passions in a much more authentic and ultimately submissive manner, inviting Fernando into her bedroom later that night, which she shares with Anais.

There, Anais becomes the voyeur, the witness to the seduction. Reticent, as first attempts at lovemaking often are, Elena's body yields then tightens, unsure but moving to her internal rhythm of desire. All the while Breillat's lens is there capturing the explicit nature of the act, the urging of Fernando as he entices Elena to relax and tells her he sees this as a demonstration of her love for him. Breillat exposes Anais's arousal, while from her small bed across the room, with eyes peering through flared fingers, she observes her sister being seduced, coerced and finally cruelly penetrated into this act of love.

Business phone calls for their father interrupt the family's time together. He admits he can't be away for too long and he ends up having to go back to Paris, leaving their mother to reluctantly drive the distance home on her own.

Fernando gives Elena a token of his appreciation for their night together, which we soon learn was not his to give when his mother shows up at the villa to reclaim it. The girls' mother is embarrassed and furious with Elena and she gathers the girls and their belongings to leave for Paris at once. The drive from hell is what ensues. I sat on the edge of my seat as she raced along the highway, weaving between 18-wheelers, anger and headlights blinding her. The faces of the girls and the tension in the grip their mother has on the steering wheel makes for one of the best scenes in the film.

Finally, exhausted, they pull into a rest stop. It's dark, a few trucks pull in and out as well and there's an uneasy feel in the air as these three women settle in to perhaps sleep for a couple of hours. We have every reason to fear. Anais's eyes have been opened to a world of sensations but without real understanding. What we take away from this film is just what Breillat wants us to, complexity, paradox and danger.

Tell Me More About It: Director Catherine Breillat imprints her audience with images and emotions of female sexuality not common to the screen. Her themes of young girls' awakening passions have been condemned and even labeled pornographic by some powers that be. One result is that a film she directed in 1975 titled A Real Young Girl, is just making it to the U.S. for release-it was even banned in France.

Claiming and owning one's sexuality should not be a penance for which young women must pay. Breillat's films force an examination of that notion. What is love and what is lust…and what is something else entirely? Fat Girl leaves us with what was described by the 37th Chicago International Film Festival as "…a jaw-dropping finale."

Anais: Anais Reboux	Elena: Roxane Mesquida
Fernando: Libero De Rienzo	Mother: Arsinee Khanjian
Director/Writer: Catherine Breillat	Father: Romain Goupil

Roxane Mesquida: School of the Flesh
Catherine Breillat: Romance, A Real Young Girl