1) I believe so. She was just shy and overwhelmed by her feelings for Floriane. I thought she was just one of those people who occupied under the philosophy of, "If you can't think of anything correct to say, don't say anything." Floriane was quite overpowering company, as well, especially considering Marie's feelings for her, so it was realistic to a certain extent that Marie would be star struck around her. Marie was also more talkative in the scenes with Anne, so I'm fairly sure she was 'all there', as you put it.
2) The film never makes this overly clear, but I assumed that it was less to do with being "gay" or "straight" and more to do with how comfortable Floriane felt around Marie. I always had the feeling that she was 'fundamentally straight' (if there is such a thing) and was experimenting with Marie because she was somebody she felt comfortable around and didn't have to please. For example, when Floriane is on the brink of losing her virginity to François, she never mentions not being attracted to him. She's just worried about him finding out that she's not the slut everybody thinks she is. She tells Marie - on the subtitles - that "you do it, you'll make it okay," or something. I assumed this wasn't to do with a particular attraction towards Marie or a lack of attraction towards François. She just wanted Marie, someone she cared about (and who cared about her), not like one of the sleazy men she'd probably pick up at a nightclub, to "take care of it" for her.
3) According to Yahoo! Answers, the legal age in France for nightclub entry is still eighteen. But if you look eighteen, you can get in, depending on the bar staff. So it's possible that Marie got in because of having Floriane - who looked older and could have passed for eighteen - beside her. Agreed, Marie did look too young to be let in, but who knows what happened?
4) That was very confusing to me as well. I assumed that Marie stopped the sexual encounter out of jealousy and Floriane was grateful -- laughing and hugging Marie -- because she didn't want to lose her virginity after all and wasn't ready for sex. So it was a kind of "lucky escape" for Floriane. But I'd like to hear others' perspective on this, because I'm not sure.
5) I definitely don't think so. One review I read called it an "attempt to cast a love spell." That's possible, given that Anne was kind of immature and lived in a fantasy/fairytale world. She seemed like a girl who would try and cast a love spell on a boy she liked.
6) No, I'm pretty sure not. I got the impression that Floriane was honest when she told Marie that she didn't sleep with him. Plus, although I liked Floriane, I got the impression that she was quite a selfish character who wouldn't lie to preserve Marie's feelings, not when she'd already told her (Marie) of her intentions to sleep with him. I also thought that François went to Anne because of Floriane's rejection. As I've stated several times, I don't think Floriane was ready for sex and she hid it in a fear about François finding out that she was still a virgin. Thus, she rejected him and went to Marie, while François went to Anne.
7) No, I don't think that was a fantasy. Although it brings up lots of other questions - how did François know where she lived, etc.? - I think he was just frustrated from having Floriane reject him so many times that he went to see Anne, who was clearly in love with him and he probably thought would be quite easy to manipulate. She seemed to want to kiss him (remember how she told Marie that she was "behind" in that department?) but he just wanted to gain full on gratification from groping her. There was nothing fantastical about that sequence. Anne wasn't a realist like Floriane or to a certain extent Marie, so that wasn't how she'd imagine an encounter with François if she was making it up.
8) That was a more stylistic technique than anything by the filmmakers, I think, to involve us in the lives of the girls and focus solely on them and their story. (Also, it allowed Marie and Floriane to go pretty much wherever they wanted, so it had practical upsides as well.)
9) She was, although this seems like a bit of a plot hole. She was there in the beginning (when Marie first saw Floriane), she was shown getting dressed in the changing room near the beginning and she told Marie about the swimming party that was going on, but I don't remember her at any of the other competitions or events. In addition to this, Marie told Floriane that she needed "someone to get [her] in." If Anne was on the swimming team, then Marie wouldn't need Floriane to help her, would she? Or was this just Marie's way of getting close to Floriane? Then again, I got the impression that Anne wasn't very popular in the swim team - from the sceptical way Marie asked her if she had been invited to the party - so maybe that was it?
10) I liked her. She was manipulative in places and I don't think she genuinely cared for Marie in the way Marie cared for her, but I liked her more than Marie and Anne. I was a little confused about her portrayal, though; I couldn't figure out if we were supposed to like her or dislike her, and I had no idea whether she cared for Marie or not. I kept expecting there to be some kind of nasty "Carrie"-esque prank involved especially when Floriane invited Marie to her house, but no.
11) It's up to your interpretation. I think (personal interpretation) that Marie and Anne both jumping into the pool was a sign of carthasis and that they were cleansing themselves of the childish things that they had been involved in before: for Marie, it would be Floriane; for Anne, it would be François. I don't think Marie and Floriane's relationship would have carried on past the kiss. For me, that was the moment that Marie really admitted that she was a lesbian and was now at peace with it and her hormonal emotions that had drawn her towards Floriane. Thus, she had no more need of Floriane. For Floriane, there would always be somebody else - I found the last shot of her, still dancing with the others, to be a sign that, although Anne and Marie would change, Floriane wouldn't. Although I think the friendship between Anne and Marie was going to continue past the end shot, I don't think their friendship would ever be the same as it was before. An interesting point that someone else brought up was, although the film is called "Water Lilies" in English, the French title literally translates to "The Birth of Octopuses." So the ending shot - of Marie and Anne in the pool - was the sign that they, joined together to resemble an octopus as they were, were going to continue their friendship, but reborn as adults, not children.
All my personal interpretation; if I've made a mistake somewhere, feel free to correct it .
This will all make sense in the end.
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adamyshoe
15 years ago
Great comments, Baby Claire.
A few things I wanted to add to these very sincere questions and very well-put answers:
8) Many coming of age/bildungsroman/teen-angst movies deliberately choose to minimize the presence of adults, even to the point that it seems weird. I suspect that the filmmakers made this choice for the reasons you mentioned, but also in part to play up the feelings of isolation and misunderstanding that teens go through -- that their world and their concerns are separate from those of adults.
9) Anne was also on a synchronized swimming squad. In keeping with her character as immature, she was shown near the beginning in the midst of a group of younger swimmers, all wearing matching uniforms. This suggested to me that Anne was either unwilling or unable (not skilled enough) to be part of a more mature, more talented squad like Floriane's. She was very much "second string".
10) I liked and felt sorry for Floriane. I think it was obvious she cared for Marie, but was so confused about her sexuality that she didn't know what she wanted. She seemed very open to intimacy with Marie -- I found myself hoping Marie would make a move long before she did, and when Marie finally did DO SOMETHING about her unrequited love, Floriane as much as said, "well it's about time" (the subtitles said something to the effect of "that wasn't so hard now, was it?).
11) I think these interpretations are spot on. Floriane is in some ways the least mature of the three. Anne is almost as bad...she thinks she knows what she wants, but when she gets it, she finds she was mistaken. Marie knows what she wants but doesn't know what to do about it, and ultimately finds that she is in a more mature place than Floriane when she finally does do something.
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