Isabelle (Marine Vacth) is a Young & Beautiful seventeen year old girl who has just been convinced to lose her virginity. After losing this part of herself, other parts of her begin to fall to the wayside as well and she begins working as a call girl. As she meets man after man in their hotel rooms, the Isabelle that once existed begins to crumble. She falls emotionless and cold as she contemplates not only her newly found profession, but her place in the world.
The premise of Young & Beautiful is disturbing when considering the fact that grown men are soliciting an underage prostitute (some of whom are truly unaware of her age). The majority of the film is centered around this underage girl galavanting around town and engaging in sexual encounters with strangers. To be clear, I am not bashing or belittling prostitution as a profession as it is one of the oldest professions in the world, but the ideas behind Young & Beautiful are sure to ruffle some feathers and disgust some audiences. In general, however, even those who are not disgusted by the premise have to admit that the scenarios that François Ozon places Isabelle in throughout the film are cringeworthy.
The sex throughout Young & Beautiful is uninspiring. There is no emotion, no passion and it is clear that Vacth’s Isaelle is faking throughout each and every sexual encounter. This seems like poor execution, when it is, in fact, exactly what the film calls for. Isabelle is meant to be emotionless and absent from the acts she engages in, and Vacth’s performance perfectly encapsulates those ideas. Oddly enough, even with Isabelle’s purposeful lack of emotion, audiences are able to appreciate what she is experiencing emotionally. The absence of emotion provides audiences the opportunity to understand Isabelle’s pain and understand the struggles of her everyday life.
Even with Vacth’s wonderful acting ability and the incredibly accurate performances, Young & Beautiful fails to develop a story. Within twenty minutes Isabelle transforms from horny, emotional, virgin teenager to promiscuous call girl incapable of expressing herself through anything other than sex. There is a gap here that isn’t appropriately closed and it leaves audiences in the dark about what else may have led to this. Even as Young & Beautiful progresses and the dialogue is meant to express who and what Isabelle has become, audiences struggle to understand everything that has made her who she is. This absence of story development leaves audiences feeling underwhelmed with little other than Isabelle’s sexual encounters to look forward to (and, again, the sex scenes are completely emotionless).
It is human nature to be attracted to drama and Ozon’s Young & Beautiful is full of that. Audiences recognize the fact that Isabelle is grappling with life like anyone else would; and it makes it even more dramatic that she is a minor. As she digs herself further and further into her own grave, viewers (and I’m assuming that most have not gone through what Isabelle goes through throughout Young & Beautiful) are able to empathize with her plights and hope that she rehabilitates herself by the end of the film. Viewers are able to find an emotional attachment to Isabelle (and only her), but not to the story. The lack of development creates an inability to appreciate what Ozon tries to accomplish and makes it difficult to acknowledge the importance (and the potential depth) of Young & Beautiful.
Written & Directed by François Ozon. Starring Marine Vacth, Géraldine Pailhas, Frédéric Pierrot, Fantin Ravat, Johan Leysen, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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