Corrie Film Club

On Sunday March 13th Corrie Film Club will be showing Girlhood (France 2015), Céline Sciamma’s gritty portrait of a teen’s life in the Paris projects.

Given five stars out of five by Mark Kermode, he said “Girlhood is very much its own master – dancing to its own beat, intertwined yet independent. Marieme (Karidja Touré) lives the “banlieue life” amid the housing projects of Paris, cemented in the cinematic imagination by the grainy monochrome hues of Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film La Haine. With her tall frame and watchful demeanour (her expression suggests the expectation of rebuke, particularly around men), Touré perfectly embodies the awkward tensions of someone torn between childhood and adulthood, driven to the margins by her age, her gender, her race. Dropping out of class, she turns to petty crime, meeting society’s barely veiled expectations head-on, giving as good as she gets. With its street-smart casting (drama and theatre schools were “nearly all white”, says Sciamma, who auditioned non-professionals recruited from malls and train stations), Girlhood speaks the language of its characters with wit, fluency and insight. Yet for all its convincing conversation, much of what is spoken is physical rather than verbal, the story unfolding through gesture, rhythm and on more than one occasion dance. The result is honest, empowering and electrifying. Bravo!”