There may be no human bond more powerful than the friendship between two teenage girls – which means, by the transitive property of adolescent hormones, that there may be nothing more powerfully destructive than the friendship between two teenaged girls. In the French-language feature “Breathe,” an adaptation of Anne-Sophie Brasme’s young adult novel, actress-turned-director Mélanie Laurent describes one of these relationships with a brush that, appropriately enough, is as beautiful as it is harrowing.
Charlie (Josephine Japy) is not having an easy time of it. Lovely in a mousy way, she seethes with a cringing resentment, especially when her parents – who are on the verge of breaking up due to her father’s infidelities – go at it while she bleakly maws her breakfast cereal. In other words, she’s ripe for an experience that will obliterate everything else. Instead of drugs or an eating disorder, she discovers honey-haired Sarah (Lou De Laage), a new girl in her class who exudes an enticingly subversive glamour. Wielding cigarettes and a perfect pout, Sarah announces that she’s moved back to France because Nigeria, where her mother still works for an NGO, has grown too dangerous. Continue Reading →
