So I study French in college and am a bit confused about the title of the movie. Is "pieuvre" something else besides "octopus"? What are your thoughts? Either literary or an actual answer.
Same thing goes for the English/Brazilian translation too, why "water lillies"? I probably am missing some symbolism here, so do help me.
To me, Naissance des Pieuvres is in part a reference to the synchronised swimming, how when the girls turn upside down and their legs are out of the water they look like octopuses. The naissance part is about how these girls are coming of age.
Note that in the final scene, Marie and Anne "join" their bodies in the water and they now have eight limbs, just like an octopus. This scene also marks the point in which they leave their childhood fantasies behind and embark in a more adult journey, being -in a way- reborn.