Water Lilies.

"Water Lilies is a nice, watchable, attractive, minor work," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "What it lacks is a sense of purpose, a commitment not just to its characters but also to its own reason for being."

"Dismissed in some quarters as trash because it depicts a sexual act (of sorts) between two teenage girls, Water Lilies struck me instead as a hypnotic and wholly convincing look at teen culture from the inside, with all its courage, cruelty and unspoken codes of silence intact," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "This is another story of three interlocking female characters, but it has an electrical charge and a sense of tragedy and mystery that, to my taste, Jellyfish strives for but cannot reach."

Updated through 4/9.

27-year-old French director Céline Sciamma's "feature debut doesn't quite have the stun of discovery - mortified adolescent sexuality is something of a national specialty, after all - but she inexhaustibly endeavors after the indelible image," writes Nick Pinkerton in the Voice.

"[T]he film feels remarkably assured in its handling of emotion and desire, never resorting to overly emphatic trauma or snarky anti-emotionalism," writes Cullen Gallagher in the L Magazine.

"The underwater shots of synchronized swim practice are certainly something, but Marie can stare longingly at Floriane only so many times before my more than ample patience for watching pretty, tormented girls becomes altogether spent," sighs Marcy Dermansky.

Cineuropa interviews Sciamma.

Earlier: Reviews from Cannes.

Update, 4/7: "Films from the vantage point of young people typically depict parents and teachers' crucial presence in their lives, but Water Lilies instead subtly fashions a world where girls navigate sites of personal exploration unhindered by adult supervision," writes Michael Joshua Rowin in Reverse Shot. "Sciamma lets her adolescent creations figure out their sexuality all by themselves. She more than pulls off the conceit and in the process manages to portray same-sex experimentation originally and without an iota of titillating lasciviousness."

Update, 4/9: Boyd van Hoeij talks with Sciamma at european-films.net.

Posted by dwhudson at April 5, 2008 9:20 AM