It’s Hard Being a Teenage Girl, but Céline Sciamma Does it Right

Céline Sciamma has been a hot name as of late. I guess you could say she’s … on fire? (Sorry, I had to). The French writer/director recently came out with the emotionally poignant and visually striking Portrait of a Lady on Fire last year, which was met with rave reviews by general audiences and critics alike. The LGBTQ+ period romance has even been included in the conversation of the most romantic films ever made. I’ve personally even heard it described as “yearning personified.” On the surface, it’s a love story between a painter and her bride-to-be subject. However, underneath the surface (and in Céline’s own words), it’s about how love is an education to art, about how art makes us greater lovers.

While Portrait of a Lady on Fire is arguably the director’s magnum opus to date, her earlier films are notable works that, though very different from PoaLoF, deserve just as much attention. Her early career saw her creating three films centered around adolescent female self-exploration of sexuality, gender, and cultural identity. The films aren’t directly linked, but were more or less viewed as a loose trilogy after the fact in that they overlap thematically, with each one following their respective main character as they grapple with these issues during such a formative period of their lives. The lack of nondiegetic sound in combination with authentic performances by young, nonprofessional actors make each film feel especially present and real, depicting the complexities of childhood without glossing over the darker moments.

1. Water Lilies (2007)

Water Lilies sees Sciamma as a first-time director, and she sets the film against the backdrop of the criminally under-recognized sport of synchronized swimming. A young Adèle Haenel stars as Floriane, the bad girl swim team captain that transitions from main character Marie’s mentor, to best friend, to object of affection. While the story centers around Marie’s nascent yet growingly intense desire for her new best friend, Céline has commented that the film is, at its core, about observation. Marie’s quite the observer, established as an outsider looking in from the very beginning. We as the audience are perceiving her teen bubble of a world—and her painful, confusing, intense desire for Floriane—through her unflinching gaze. Sciamma has mentioned how the first time you fall in love births the rise of jealousy. We see Marie experience that here in a way that is borderline excruciating. It’s true to the nature of these all-encompassing first crushes that go hand in hand with the growing pains of adolescence. 

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that this film without a doubt puts a much deserved spotlight on the athletic nature of synchronized swimming. It shows the sport as a balance between beauty and athleticism, a spectacle of perfect femininity. Sciamma chose to make the [exclusively female] sport central to the plot as a metaphor for the performative nature of gender. When watching the girls engage in the sport, it looks beautiful and effortless. But it’s an entirely different scene underneath the water’s surface, showing the team keeping afloat with such controlled movements that are sure to make you never underestimate the power and strength of the human leg ever again. It represents the struggle and strife that’s synonymous with the experience of being a woman. 

2. Tomboy (2011)

In Tomboy, Sciamma examines how one’s gender identity and expression are largely constructed through performance in childhood. It tells the story of 10-year-old Laure, a new girl in town that ends up taking on the identity of Mickäel when befriending the other kids she meets. It occurs during the period of childhood right before puberty hits, so hormonal changes have yet to differentiate the looks of kids’ bodies. There’s a formative scene in Tomboy of Laure (as Mickäel) standing on the sidelines of a football game, watching her new friends play. She’s standing alongside her crush, Lisa, watching her new all-boy friend group play football. She’s observing them very closely, watching them swagger and slouch and spit around the court, shirtless. You can see it in her eyes that she’s taking notes, and you eventually see her adopting these exact traits. As the film goes on, Laure continues to observe her guy friends and test the limits of how far she can fully become Mickäel, with the risk of a humiliating reveal increasing with each scenario.

These interactions with her friends as Mickäel contrast with her home life as Laure. At home, Laure is coddled by her loving parents and plays with her mischievous, precocious and particularly feminine younger sister. As the viewer, you follow her as she navigates the duality of her separate identities, and you remember both the unquestioning acceptance and humiliating cruelty that can come from kids.

3. Girlhood (2014)

Girlhood’s main character is Marieme, a high-schooler with an abusive older brother who becomes part of a tough girl gang. It shows a different kind of emotional vulnerability in its protagonist, one that is inwardly fragile but outwardly callous to match her environment. This film is the most unlike the others, breaking away from Sciamma’s previous work both in its content and style. It factors in racial identity a lot more, understatedly depicting the intersection of Blackness and the teenage girl experience. There’s also a significant use of nondiegetic sound, which is not normally expected from Sciamma’s typical no-frills filmmaking style. But her use of music in Girlhood proves to be especially meaningful. Through several scenes centered around movement and music (specifically a standout scene heavily featuring Rihanna’s “Diamonds”), we watch Marieme gain confidence and become further integrated into this bande de filles (the film’s original French title). She falls in love and faces her familial issues head-on through the film’s different episodic installments, ultimately finding the most meaning, protection, and camaraderie from her friends. Only Céline Sciamma can depict a rather harsh reality with such composed technical grace.

When watching each of these films (and especially Portrait of a Lady on Fire), it becomes clear that Céline heavily focuses on the power of the gaze. In Water Lilies, Marie always has her eyes on Floriane and is repeatedly mesmerized when watching the swim team. In Tomboy, Laure is constantly observing the behaviors of her male counterparts in an effort to best imitate them. In Girlhood, Marieme is always viewed as a loner, silently looking and following along until she’s finally integrated into the group. Each of Sciamma’s main characters are outsiders until they get what they want: reciprocated desire, acceptance, friendship. These highs are fleeting moments, though, and are often followed by feelings of isolation, rejection, and hurt. But Céline said it best herself: if you wish to share the intimacy of a female character, you have to share her loneliness.