Breathe

The beautiful French actress Mélanie Laurent (Now You See Me) proves she can, also, write and direct with her new film Breathe.

This is the sad story of a lovely high school student (Joséphine Japy) and her enchantment with a new girl in class (Lou de Laâge), who seems to be the most erudite in this Southern France milieu.

The film starts with a class discussion on the dangers inherent in the excesses of emotions and the evolution of the relationship of these two young women bears this out.

Laurent shows that she can deal very well with her young cast and uses her Cinematographer Arnaud Potier to get us into the feel of the characters and understand their world.

Though I wasn’t happy with the shocking resolution of this story, I assume that came from Author Anne-Sophie Brasme’s novel.

The one thing I don’t understand is the title.  With all the smoking, especially by the asthmatic main character, I think Suffocation would have been more apt.   

I give Breathe a 3.3 out of 5.