{{Short description|1976 French film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox film |name = A Real Young Girl |image = ARealYoungGirl1976Poster.jpg |caption = French poster |native_name = {{Infobox name module|fr|Une vraie jeune fille}} |director = [[Catherine Breillat]] |producer = {{Plainlist| *Pierre Richard Muller *[[André Génovès]] }} |writer = Catherine Breillat |based_on = {{based on|''Le Soupirail''|[[Catherine Breillat]]}} |starring = {{Plainlist| *[[Charlotte Alexandra]] *[[Hiram Keller]] *Rita Maiden *Bruno Balp }} |music = [[Mort Shuman]] |cinematography = {{Plainlist| *Patrick Daert *Pierre Fattori }} |editing = {{Plainlist| *Annie Charrier *Michèle Quevroy }} |distributor = Rézo Films |released = {{Film date|1999|2|4|[[International Film Festival Rotterdam|IFFR]]|df=y}} (produced in 1976) |runtime = 93 minutes (uncut) |country = France |language = French }} '''''A Real Young Girl''''' ({{langx|fr|Une vraie jeune fille}}) is a 1976 French [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] about a 14-year-old girl's [[Human sexual activity|sexual]] awakening, written and directed by [[Catherine Breillat]]. It was based on her fourth novel, ''Le Soupirail''.
This film, Breillat's first, is notable for its [[Unsimulated sex|graphic depiction of sex scenes]], which include [[Charlotte Alexandra]] exposing her [[breast|breasts]] and [[vulva]] and the male actors displaying their [[penis|penises]]. This led to the film being banned in many countries, and it was not released to theatres until 2000.
==Plot== Alice Bonnard is a 14-year-old girl attending a boarding school in France who comes back to her home in the [[Landes forest]] for the summer of 1963. In [[voiceover]], she complains that she dislikes coming home because she is frequently bored. In one scene, as she has coffee with her parents she inserts a spoon into her [[vagina]]. She flashes back to her time at school, where she frequently [[Masturbation|masturbated]] out of boredom. Her father hires a young man named Jim, with whom Alice immediately becomes infatuated. Alice has a graphic [[sexual fantasy]] in which Jim ties her to the ground with [[barbed wire]] and attempts to insert an [[earthworm]] into her vagina. When the earthworm will not fit, Jim tears it into small pieces and puts them in Alice's [[pubic hair]].
At a carnival, a middle-aged man exposes himself to her on a ride. She then arrives home and imagines seeing her father's [[Human penis|penis]]. She exposes herself to Jim, and the two masturbate in front of each other, to Alice's chagrin. She discovers her father is having an affair, and Jim tries pressuring her into having sex. She agrees, but only if he will go to Switzerland and get [[the pill]] to avoid pregnancy. It develops that he has a fiancée and must sneak out at night to meet up with Alice. He is then shot and killed by a trap that Alice's father set up to keep [[wild boar]] out of his [[maize]] field.
== Cast == * [[Charlotte Alexandra]] as Alice Bonnard * [[Hiram Keller]] as « Jim » Pierre-Évariste Renard * Rita Maiden as Mrs. Bonnard * Bruno Balp as Mr. Bonnard * Georges Guéret as Martial * [[Shirley Stoler]] as Grocer in Aupom
==Production== This film has no closing credits; instead, an instrumental version of the song "Suis-je une petite fille" ''(Am I a little girl)'' plays over a black screen.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Filippo |first=Maria San |date=2002-12-12 |title=''A Real Young Girl'': Catherine Breillat's Adolescent Wonderland |url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2016/cteq/a-real-young-girl/ |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Senses of Cinema |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bélot |first=Sophie |title=The Cinema of Catherine Breillat |publisher=Brill Rodopi |year=2017 |isbn=978-9004326941 |pages=55–90 |chapter=The Teen Years in ''Une vraie jeune fille'', ''36 fillette'', and ''A ma soeur!'' |doi=10.1163/9789004343849_005}}</ref>
Though playing a 14-year-old, Charlotte Alexandra was 20 years old at the time of the film's production.<ref name=":0" />
==Reception== On [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] the film has a score of 71% based on reviews from 7 critics, with an [[Weighted arithmetic mean|average rating]] of 6.8/10.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Real Young Girl (1976)|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/une-vraie-jeune-fille-a-real-young-girl-a-real-young-lady|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Flixster]]|accessdate=13 August 2021}}</ref>
Critic Brian Price called ''A Real Young Girl'' a "transgressive look at the sexual awakening of an [[Adolescence|adolescent]] girl", an "awkward film" which "represents Breillat at her most [[Georges Bataille|Bataillesque]], freely mingling abstract images of female genitalia, mud, and rodents into this otherwise realist account of a young girl's" coming of age.<ref name=":1" /> Price argued that the film's approach is in line with [[Linda Williams (film scholar)|Linda Williams]]'s defense of literary [[pornography]], which Williams describes as an "elitist, avant-garde, intellectual, and philosophical pornography of imagination" versus the "mundane, crass materialism of a dominant mass culture".<ref name=":1" /> He added "there is no way ... to integrate this film into a commodity driven system of distribution", because it "does not offer visual pleasure, at least not one that comes without intellectual engagement, and more importantly, rigorous self-examination".<ref name=":1" /> As such, Breillat has insisted that sex is the subject, not the object, of her work.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Brian |date=December 2002 |title=Breillat, Catherine |url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/breillat/ |access-date= |website=[[Senses of Cinema]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
Lisa Alspector, reviewing the film in the ''[[Chicago Reader]]'', called the film's "theories about sexuality and trauma ... more nuanced and intuitive than those of most schools of psychology", and noted the film's use of a blend of [[dream sequence]]s with realistic scenes.<ref>{{cite news |author=Alspector |first=Lisa |title=A Real Young Girl |work=[[Chicago Reader]] |url=https://chicagoreader.com/film/a-real-young-girl/ |url-status=live |accessdate=11 January 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090647/http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/21135_REAL_YOUNG_GIRL.html |archivedate=29 September 2007}}</ref> John Petrakis of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' noted that Breillat "has long been fascinated with the idea that women are not allowed to go through puberty in private but instead seem to be on display for all to watch, a situation that has no parallel with boys".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Petrakis |first=John |title=Movie review, 'A Real Young Girl' |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |url=http://metromix.com/top/1,1419,M-Metromix-Movies-younggirlreviewmoviefront!ArticleDetail-14137,00.html |url-status=dead |access-date=2023-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011123212645/http://metromix.com/top/1,1419,M-Metromix-Movies-younggirlreviewmoviefront!ArticleDetail-14137,00.html |archive-date=2001-11-23}}</ref> Petrakis points out that Breillat's film "seems acutely aware of this paradox".<ref name=":2" /> [[A. O. Scott]] from ''[[The New York Times]]'' called the film "crude, unpolished, yet curiously dreamy".<ref>{{cite news |last=Scott |first=A.O. |author-link=A. O. Scott |date=1 June 2001 |title=Film Review; That Certain Summer, Her Life Turned Erotic |page=16 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/01/movies/film-review-that-certain-summer-her-life-turned-erotic.html |access-date=2023-07-16}}</ref> [[Maitland McDonagh]] in ''[[TV Guide]]'' also commented on the film's curious nature in her review: "neither cheerfully naughty nor suffused with gauzy prurience, [the film] evokes a time of turbulent (and often ugly) emotions with disquieting intensity".<ref>{{Cite web |last=McDonagh |first=Maitland |title=Une Vraie Jeune Fille Reviews |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/une-vraie-jeune-fille/review/2000075743/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |website=[[TV Guide]]}}</ref> Other reviewers, such as ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]''{{'}}s [[David Sterritt]], view the film as a waypoint in the director's early development toward becoming "a world-class filmmaker".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sterritt |first=David |date=June 8, 2001 |title=A Real Young Girl (Not rated) |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/08/fp14s1-csm.shtml |url-status=dead |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010629072001/https://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/08/fp14s1-csm.shtml |archive-date=2001-06-29}}</ref>
Several reviewers have commented on the film's frank treatment of unusual [[Adolescent sexuality|sexual]] fantasies and images. ''Filmcritic.com''{{'s}} [[Christopher Null]] pointed out that the film was "widely banned for its hefty pornographic content", and called it one of Breillat's "most notorious" films.<ref name=":3">Null, Christopher (31 October 2006). "A Real Young Girl". Filmcritic.com.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=20 June 2013 |title=Agent Provocateur: French Director Catherine Breillat Dissects Desire |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2013-06-20/ty-article/.premium/a-french-director-dissects-desire/0000017f-ecb7-d3be-ad7f-febfaf300000 |access-date=2023-07-16}}</ref> Null says "viewers should be warned" about the film's "graphic shots" of "sexual awakening ... (and) sensory disturbances", such as the female lead vomiting all over herself and playing with her [[earwax]].<ref name=":3" /> While Null rated this "low-budget work ... about a 3 out of 10 on the professionalism scale" and admitted that "it barely makes a lick of sense", he conceded that "there's something oddly compelling and poetic about the movie".<ref name=":3" /> ''[[The Village Voice]]''{{'}}s [[J. Hoberman]] called the film a "philosophical gross-out comedy rudely presented from the perspective of a sullen, sexually curious 14-year-old".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hoberman |first=J. |date=25 May 2001 |title=Days of Infamy |work=[[The Village Voice]] |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0122/hoberman.shtml |url-status=dead |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010608160809/https://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0122/hoberman.shtml |archive-date=June 8, 2001}}</ref> The ''[[New York Post]]'''s [[Jonathan Foreman (journalist)|Jonathan Foreman]] called the film a "test of endurance, and not just because you need a rather stronger word than 'explicit' to describe this long-unreleased, self-consciously provocative film".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Foreman |first=Jonathan |date=1 June 2001 |title='Young Girl' Finds Sex? Oh, Grow Up |work=[[New York Post]] |url=http://www.nypost.com/movies/27258.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010609052249/http://www.nypost.com/movies/27258.htm |archive-date=2001-06-09}}</ref>
==See also== *''[[36 Fillette]]'' *''[[Fat Girl]]'' *[[Unsimulated sex in film|List of mainstream movies with unsimulated sex]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|0135024}} *{{TCMDb title|481417}} *{{AlloCiné title|15840}} *[https://boutique.arte.tv/detail/une_vraie_jeune_fille ''A Real Young Girl'''] at ARTE Boutique
{{Catherine Breillat}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Real Young Girl, A}} [[Category:1976 drama films]] [[Category:1976 directorial debut films]] [[Category:1970s erotic drama films]] [[Category:1970s coming-of-age drama films]] [[Category:French coming-of-age drama films]] [[Category:French erotic drama films]] [[Category:Rediscovered French films]] [[Category:Films set in the 1960s]] [[Category:Films based on French novels]] [[Category:Films about puberty]] [[Category:Films directed by Catherine Breillat]] [[Category:Obscenity controversies in film]] [[Category:1970s rediscovered films]] [[Category:1976 French-language films]] [[Category:1976 French films]] [[Category:1999 French films]] [[Category:Films scored by Mort Shuman]] [[Category:Films with screenplays by Catherine Breillat]]