Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Isabelle, a 17-year-old student, loses her virginity during a quick holiday romance. When she returns home, she begins a secret life as a prostitute for a year.
François Ozon's quietly provocative character study benefits enormously from Marine Vacth's icily compelling lead performance and Pascalinie Chavanne's precise, elegant cinematography structured around the four seasons. The film is visually polished and emotionally cool in a distinctly Ozon manner. However, the plot resists conventional explanation almost to a fault — Isabelle's motivations remain deliberately opaque, which is intellectually honest but leaves the narrative feeling elusive rather than profound. The ending, returning to the first lover's widow, feels contrived and somewhat unsatisfying as a resolution to the film's central questions. Ozon's approach is confident but not entirely novel within French art-house provocation traditions.