You Will Be Mine (2009)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

As Good As It Gets

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This movie is definitely worth seeing, and has nothing to do with the movies like "Single White Female", or even "Lost and Delirious", etc. It is not a French version of some obsession thriller, and has nothing to do with "Fatal Attraction", or other ideologically really sexist movies. I guess many people disqualify this movie even before watching exactly because of these unjust and incorrect comparisons, which are really misleading. The film is about two really young girls, one of whom is just a bit older. They are from the beginning very attracted to each other, emotionally and sexually definitely, and they need each other just in very different ways. The love and attraction is sometimes very difficult, and very unfair, disturbing, and intertwined with a lot of morally ambiguous issues, and complications. But it is definitely not just an obsession from one side, it is obsession and sexual fascination from both sides, just it is the pianist who is trying to turn her own obsession for the other girl into being a good pianist, and keeps avoiding physical contact, suffering and enjoying it at the same time. But there is no doubt that the touch of the other girl makes her lose all her control and brings her sexual electro-shocks. That is why the pianist does not mind sleeping with men, because with them she is not losing control, which is not the case with her sexual contact with the girl. It is even actually surprising how quickly the pianist makes clear that she is not crazy about men, at all. For her they are just OK, she can handle them, because she does not fall in love with them.It is also true that the movie is not entirely successful in all its aspects, i.e. it is not really totally understandable for wide audience. It does require a musically educated, at least a little bit, viewer. Also, it does require a viewer who understands to which extent ambitious young people have to be dedicated to the art, if they want to be better than the others. The Marie, the piano student, simply has to make priorities between her uncontrollable and unpredictable encounter with that weird girl,Ema, and, on the other side, her dedication to piano studies. She can give all her sexual energy only to one of them, not both. The paradox is that Ema is the only one from her surrounding who is very intelligent and really understands Marie's talent and work with piano, and who would do anything to help her. But the accent of the movie is on the playing classical music, and how the sexual ecstasy with another person needs to be subordinated to this music.It is simply a movie about how complicated and unrewarding love sometimes can be, confronted with other demands in life. It is definitely not a movie for someone who expects some classical lesbian love plot. But it is a movie about very passionate feelings, and in spite of subordination of love to the music, the film is highly erotic and exciting in all its dimensions.

There's no doubt about it; if you're a Classical music buff you could do a lot worse than monitoring French cinema for, say, the last decade or two where you can select from such titles as Un Coeur en hiver, Les Chorists, The Piano Tutor, The Freelancers, My Children Are Not Like Others, All The Mornings Of The World, to name only six. Supplementing those titles is this feature debut by Sophie Laloy, best known as a technician in the Sound department, which rejoices in at least three separate titles, the original French (Je te mangerais), plus two English translations, Highly Strung and You Will Be Mine. Whether by accident or design it tens to resist classification and/or genre. Gifted pianist Marie has a chance to study for a year at the conservatory in Lyon but can't swing the freight on a room so she accepts an invitation from Emma, whom she hasn't seen since they were children, to share a large flat in the city which Emma more or less inherited from her parents (dead father, missing mother). Naturally Emma turns out to be a world-class Control Freak as well as a fully paid up Lesbian and as this is glaringly obvious in the first two reels it only remains for the director to decide whether she is making a psychological thriller or a Valentine to the sisterhood but it seems she has something of a Hamlet issue so the film caroms between the two genres like a pinball in a machine. Despite this it remains highly watchable and well acted by the two leads.

Since the world was first disturbed by Fatal Attraction in 1987, the viewing public has been treated to many homages to this classic tale of obsessive love gone horribly wrong, and this film follows in what has now become something of a cinematic tradition. It is not clear exactly which experiences she had herself, but for anyone looking for a quality lesbian storyline, this would be a poor choice, even though distributors Peccadillo have the title on their lesbian list. Nor is it the perfect choice if one is looking for a story of obsessive love - if sexual orientation is not important to you in a plot, look no further than the towering performance of Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher – that is how obsession and desire should be played. Rather than offering a satisfactory lesbian storyline or indeed a gripping tale of obsession and its consequences, Highly Strung is more a story about the emotional immaturity of a number of people in their late teens or early twenties, and so it adds nothing new to this sub-genre. Disappointing. GR

This film is about attraction and repulsion between two female students, Emma (Isild Le Besco) and Marie (Judith Davis). Romance between girls can turn well and become real love as it was shown in the very light comedy "Imagine me and you". But it can also present real pain and end up in drama as in "Lost and Delirious". "Je te mangerais" belongs to this second category.Emma lives on her own in her parents huge flat in Lyon. Her father is dead, and her mother has vanished some time ago without giving any more news. She offers her only friend Marie to rent a bedroom in the flat, so that this one could pursue her studies of piano at the prestigious local music academy. From the day Mary moves in, we can see the development of a difficult lesbian relationship between the two girls. Emma becomes obsessed by Marie and tries everything to conquer her, but mainly with counter productive effects. Mary, navigates between confused, interested, tempted, scared, irritated and even disgusted feelings. She eventually becomes even cruel when after leaving the flat, she decides to come back with her new boyfriend.Both actresses do a good job but I really did not like the characters they play. You do no find the search of ideal and passion, expressed by Piper Perabo. Overall the whole film is a bit slow, predictable and joyless. It is not bad, but on the same subject I would rate the film from Léa Pool much higher.