Introduced by writer Stephanie LaCava

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.

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 & Stephanie LaCava

2022, 5m, U.S., DCP

US premiere