#149: Fat Girl
Part of the Top 150 Films series
Long before its provocative conclusion, Fat Girl announces itself as a psychologically taut study of female sexuality, sisterly bonds and predatory relationships from the off. Breillat’s camera gives the viewer immense insight into the headspaces of the titular character and her older, more worldly sister (or is she?) via extremely long shots, muted cinematography and a strikingly ominous sound mix. Every performance is exemplary. Mesquida and Reboux vividly create a complicated, prickly relationship so believable that one forgets that they look nothing alike; De Rienzo inhabits a snakelike proto-men’s rights activist so obviously repellent to the viewer, but gives us licence to understand how Mesquida’s character falls for him so easily. And then it ends, and puts the previous 80 minutes in perspective (or lack thereof?). Are there equivalences between the last six minutes and the preceding 80? I’m not sure. All I know is that it remains deeply unsettling.
