Catherine Breillat's 36 Fillette (1988) + Based On, If Any (2022)
A rare 35mm screening of Breillat's controversial coming-of-age portrait, adapted from her semi-autobiographical novel.
~
Feb 15, 2023, 7:30 PM
Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
Introduced by writer Stephanie LaCava (I Fear My Pain Interests You)
doors 7:00
film 7:30
All proceeds from this screening will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds, a network of grassroots organizations building power to remove financial, logistical, cultural and political barriers to abortion access.
36 FILLETTE
directed by Catherine Breillat
1988, 88m, France, 35mm
35mm print courtesy of the USC HMH Moving Image Archive
Known for pushing the boundaries of onscreen depictions of female sexuality, Catherine Breillat’s controversial coming-of-age portrait was dubbed “a French Lolita” upon release—yet it remains a poignant, funny and bitterly honest movie about teenage girlhood. Bored on her family's summer vacation, precocious 14-year-old Lili (Delphine Zentout in her acting debut) heads to a discotheque where she cautiously begins a fling with an older man (Etienne Chicot). Adapted from Breillat’s semi-autobiographical novel.
"In France, [36 Fillette] was hated...I think people were shocked by something that I didn’t find shocking at all – adolescence. I didn’t invent the way adolescents acted and spoke; I simply copied what I saw and heard from the ones around me.” -Catherine Breillat
"Breillat has made a film far more complex than it might seem. This film depicts the sort of situation one 'should' deplore, but the film is so specifically about two particular people that it slips away from convention and just quietly goes its own way.” -Roger Ebert
preceded by:
BASED ON, IF ANY
directed by Tess Sahara, Isaac Hoff and Stephanie LaCava
2022, 5m, U.S., DCP
U.S. premiere! Filmmakers in person!
An essayistic meditation on role reversals and the regaining of autonomy. Taking its title from the default line in a screenwriting application, the film follows a young woman hyperaware of her own shape-shifting as she struggles to integrate her sexual and psychic selves.
Special thanks to Dino Everett.