Adèle Haenel Film Festival: Day 1. Naissance des Pieuvres

Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)
We start our film festival with Adèle Haenel's first role as an (almost) adult in the coming of age film Naissance des Pieuvres, directed by Céline Sciamma. Adèle had taken a break from acting for a number of years and completed her schooling. She met casting director Christel Baras, who had cast her in Les Diables as a child, at a party and Baras suggested Adèle for the role in this film. The rest is history! Trailer https://youtu.be/4S9azoVd9es "Naissance des Pieuvres tells above all how one falls in love." Céline Sciamma "The octopus is the physical manifestation of the emerging feelings of adolescence, this monster of desire and jealousy in the hollow of the belly when we awaken to desire, to sexuality, when we start to fall in love," explains Céline Sciamma in introducing the projection at the Royal Utopia in Pontoise. “At this age, all desires are unfulfilled or unlivable."
English Title	Water Lilies
Year	2007
Director	Céline Sciamma
Synopsis	Summer when you're 15. Nothing to do except look at the ceiling. They are three: Marie, Anne, Floriane. In the secret of the locker room their destinies intersect and desire arises. If the first times are unforgettable it is because they have no laws.
Honours/Awards	• Sélection Officielle Festival Cannes 2008 Un Certain Regard • Prix Louis Deluc Du Meilleur Premier Film • Adèle & Pauline: Nomination Aux César «Meilleur Espoir Féminin»
Adèle’s role Filming	Floriane, captain of the synchronised swimming team. Lead role. 24 July 2006—September 9 2006 Cergy (Val d'Oise)
Excerpts from reviews	“With terrific poise and the crispest, cleanest cinematography imaginable, the 27-year-old French director Céline Sciamma has given us a very provocative and stylish drama set in the world of teenage girls' synchronised swimming…” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/mar/14/worldcinema.drama “…Handling the drama with quiet assurance, Sciamma teases two incredibly expressive performances from her young cast: Haenel is like a Parisian Scarlett Johansson—all pouting poses and teasing come on—while Acquart throws a never-ending barrage of long, loving looks in her direction.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2008/03/10/water_lilies_2008_review.shtml “…Even so, what is most interesting about “Water Lilies” is that Ms. Sciamma appears not to have recognized that she has the makings of a real star in Ms. Haenel, whose shaded performance suggests a more interesting film than this one.” https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/movies/04lili.html
Comments	Céline Sciamma and Adèle Haenel met to make Naissance des Pieuvres. Christel Baras, who had been casting director for Les Diables, met Adèle Haenel at a party and suggested her for the role.

This is the first film that Céline Sciamma directed and it is a feature film. This is unusual, as most directors develop their skills while making short films, rather than on a feature film. After completing a Masters in literature and working in marketing for a while, Céline Sciamma studied scriptwriting at the premiere institution for filmmaking in France—La Femis. The screenplay for Naissance des Pieuvres was her graduation project and an examiner encouraged here to make the film and direct it herself. She worked with another La Femis graduate, producer Bénédicte Couvruer, to source funding and within a year of graduation she was directing her first feature film.

Honours

This film had amazing success, in particular for a director's first film and one made with non-professional actors—it was shown at the Cannes film festival, it won an award for best first film award, and two of the young actresses were nominated for best new talent at the César awards.

Though the film did not win the 'Best First Film' award at the César awards, for which it was nominated, something, perhaps better, happened that night. The legendary Jeanne Moreau (watch out for a mention of her in tomorrow's film Déchainées) was given an honorary César to mark 60 years of her contributions to the French film industry. She then chose to give this award to Céline Sciamma, as a symbol of passing the torch of film making to this young film maker who had just completed her first film. This is a profound honour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEH3JMx69gA

(which very roughly translates as:

JM: "It's an honorary Caesar so I'm going to entrust it. The first film has already received a Cesar and I would like Celine Sciamma to come here with her young team. Come quickly, we're in a hurry. Come on. So you take care of it and pass it on from year to year. Okay? Goodbye.")

Para One & Céline

The music for the film is written & performed by the artist known as Para One. This is Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, who was at La Femis at the same time as Céline. Jean-Baptiste was in the Director's stream, while Céline was in the Scriptwriting stream. While students together Jean-Baptiste directed two films that Céline wrote the screenplay for—Les Premier Communions (2004) and Cache ta joie (2006). These two short films were recently shown in Brisbane, Australia, at an exhibition celebrating Céline's career (but because of coronavirus I couldn't fulfil my plans to attend...).

The soundtrack is available and I listened to it today as I drove (for the first time in ages, because lockdown restrictions have eased a little!). The music was both relaxing and hypnotic and listening to it separate to the film was a good way to appreciate it and helped with the re-watch this evening.

Setting

The movie was filmed in Cergy, a town/suburb about 30km north of central Paris and where Céline grew up. She chose this locale as it is not 'typically French', and could be a setting in any nameless city in the world. She also deliberately excluded technologies, such as mobile phones and computers and used original music, which gives it more of a timeless feel—it is not anchored in a particular year. Significant is the absence of adults. This was done so that viewers are required to identify with the girls, not with a parent.

Cameos

There is a cameo from Céline as the server in the scene in McDonalds and one from Christel Baras (casting director) is the 'Inspectrice' who checks the girls' armpits.

Film Title

The French title translates to Birth of Octopuses and this refers to the rise of desire (a theme that Céline has continued in her films) in the girls. Though a bit cryptic, it's a better title that Water Lilies, I think. Octopuses make me think of squirming and grasping creatures that are hard to control. That's a great metaphor for desire. The English-language title is much more passive—they just seem to float and look pretty...

Rewatch Comments

I've just finished rewatching Naissance des Pieuvres (& the sound track that plays on the DVD menu is on loop). As with all of Céline Sciamma's films you are rewarded each time that you re-watch them. Although I have seen this film many times before, new layers revealed themselves to me—such as a smile or a glance that I had missed, that deepens the story. This is a great movie that captures that oh so difficult stage of life...

The crying girl at the party in the final scenes reminded me of pretty much every party I went to as a teenager—there always seemed to be someone having a dramatic night and crying at parties that I went to... (Does that still happen? is it a global phenomenon?)

The main themes of this film, of the rise of desire and falling in love, are further explored by Céline in adult women in Portrait of A Lady on Fire.

By the end of the film all three girls get what (they think) they desire, yet none are fulfilled... Perhaps Anne is the most courageous of the three, as she takes agency and chooses her direction. The other two may take years to find their way. That's no criticism of them—they are still kids and this is a step on their journey.