Brief Crossing (Breve Traversee)

Rating:
Summary: Clever Revearsal
Review: Again Catherine Breillat delivers a real life look at a middle aged women's desire. The film has great dialogue and as usual a signature Breillat ending.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: Controversial French director Catherine Breillat's "Brief Crossing" (2001) is a mesmerizing 80-minute knockout that follows two very different travelers as they meet on an overnight ferry cruise and enter into a steamy one-night affair. The twist here is that the odd couple is a thirtysomething Englishwoman and a 16-year-old French schoolboy.

Breillat was obviously inspired by David Lean's classic "Brief Encounter." However, the similarities end there. As anyone who has seen any of Breillat's previous features (including the [hot] "Romance" and "Fat Girl") will know, the director isn't interested in telling a conventional love story so much as chronicling the psychological fallout of sex. This film is no exception. As Breillat herself says in a revealing interview that accompanies the film, she made the film simply because she wanted to explore the loss of a young male's virginity. In this case, it is young Thomas (Gilles Guillan), who meets Alice (Sarah Pratt) while ordering dinner, then begins a mutual flirtation with the amused woman after she invites him to share a table with her. Over the course of the next hour, they share much revealing conversation, then eventually fall into bed together. What happens next is best left for the viewer to experience.

Obviously the centerpiece of this film is the sexual encounter, and let's just say it is beautifully handled by the director and her two actors. Perhaps because of the tender age of her young star, Breillat doesn't push the envelope as far as she did in "Romance," leaving it up to the viewer to decide just how real the encounter is. (Rest assured, young Guillan was 19 when he made the film, but still a virgin according to the director.) Still, it's an eye-opening moment. So, if you're one that is easily offended by on-screen sexuality, pass this one up.

The acting by Pratt and Guillan is perfect. The dinner scene in particular is brilliantly handled. It's fascinating to watch the older woman trying to act younger while the young boy puffs on a cigarette and vainly tries to impress the older woman by acting much older than he is. And the last fifteen minutes especially ring true, with a last-minute twist that ends the film on exactly the right note.

In all, "Brief Crossing" is a minor film which sacrifices plot to tell a simple story of two disparate souls who make a once-in-a-lifetime connection. The ending is sad but honest, and leaves the viewer to make his own judgments about the woman's behavior. (It helps to take into account the differing attitudes about sex that separates us American puritans with European sensibilities: an American film would end with the woman thrown in jail for statutory rape.) At least the film is honest about it's intentions to provide an erotic experience for the audience, unlike today's American coming-of-age films which disguise their intentions in dumb comedy and irresponsible filmmaking. (By irresponsible filmmaking, I mean that an American film would romanticize the encounter and make it appear to be a beautiful rite-of-passage for the boy and satisfying for the woman. In Breillat's world, the sex is raw, clumsy, unmutually satisfying, almost violent and even somewhat sad to watch. Quite a difference.)

In all, "Brief Crossing" is a small gem from a controversial director who delights in polarizing her audiences. The viewer's enjoyment will hinge on just how hung-up he/she is about in-your-face eroticism. Enter at your own risk. **** (out of *****)

Rating:
Summary: Attractive (...)
Review: On a ferry crossing the channela 30 year old English womans seduces a 16 years old French schoolboy,in graphic detailThe confusion of sex and love is just as thought provoking as the reversal of he usual 'older man -young woman'metaphor.My desire for gender equality would throw the Englishwoman in jail but was attenuated by the sexual philosophy expounded by the schoolboy, reflecting his generations disregard for crisis and trauma in sexual encounters.Catherine Breillats best movie so far,well worth seeing.