Film

Virgin (1988)

Director: Catherine Breillat

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Yet another film that catches the thrills and fears of a young girl's sexual awakening. Unromantic and shot in long, unflinching takes, Breillat's film sees 14-year-old Lili (Zentout), on a family camping holiday, accept a lift in a flash car from balding smoothie Maurice (Chicot). They meet later at a nightclub, and a mating ritual based on his lust and her paralysed desire begins. Things get complex. In the course of alternately teasing Maurice to distraction and insulting him cruelly - in his hotel room, on the beach, in his ex-girlfriend's bed - Lili reveals a fragility that arouses affection and protectiveness in her playboy seducer. He falls in love, and when he does, Lili senses that her use for him is over. In Lili, Breillat has created a new kind of sex symbol: a voluptuous ingénue who is sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and independent of spirit to the bitter end. But will that appeal to men? Probably not.

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