It is rare that anybody’s first sexual encounter occurs exactly as they imagined. Let’s face it; “the right time” with “the right person” hardly ever happens. À Ma Sœur! (2001) follows two adolescent French girls seeking to avoid this trend. Elena (Roxane Mesquida), a pretty 15 year-old, wishes to save herself for her true love. Anaïs though (Anaïs Reboux), Elena’s overweight 12 year-old sister, believes a true love deserves experience and so intends to give herself to a random partner. But on a family holiday to the South of France, Elena is seduced by a handsome Italian four years her senior (Libero de Rienzo) and is soon coerced into sexual experimentation much sooner than she anticipated - all whilst her sister lies awake and watching in the next bed.
Already holding a reputation for her frank meditations on sexuality, writer-director Catherine Breillat does not retreat from showing the uncomfortable results. During the awkward bedroom scenes, Anaïs looks on - attracted and horrified in equal measure - literally watching through her fingers. As the camera lingers steadily on her sister’s intimacy, seemingly invading an already unpleasant moment, this voyeurism is passed onto the audience, forcing them to either witness or recoil. Breillat carries these moments of emotional transference throughout the film. One unnerving sequence, showing a car journey that follows a family dispute, assaults with a visual and aural sense of danger. With each honking horn, high-speed lane change and roar of a passing truck the audience are made passengers, sitting in constant fear of an accident. Breillat’s frequent use of sustained shots and extended scenes ensures that nothing is cut short for emotional relief.
With an ending that comes out of leftfield, yet perfectly complements the story’s themes, this is a film that looks without blinkers at the complexities of familial ties and adolescent sexuality. The picture it paints is not pretty, but Breillat’s startling approach will not fail to make an impression.
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