''A Radiant Girl'' () is a 2021 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Sandrine Kiberlain Sandrine Kiberlain (born Sandrine Kiberlajn; 25 February 1968) is a French people, French actress and singer. Her most notable roles were in the films ''The Patriots (film), The Patriots'' (1994), ''A Self Made Hero'' (1996), ''For Sale (1998 fi ...

in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Rebecca Marder as a young Jewish girl aspiring to become an actress during the

occupation of France The Military Administration in France (; ) was an Military Administration (Nazi Germany), interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western French Third ...

. The film premiered in the

Critics' Week Critics' Week (), until 2008 called International Critics' Week ('), is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. History Critics' week was created in 1962, after the French Syndicate of ...

section of the

2021 Cannes Film Festival The 74th annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021, after having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021. American filmmaker Spike Lee was invited to be the president of the jury for the main competition for the fes ...

, where it competed for the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight or Critics' Week). The prize was created in 1978 Ca ...

Premise

In 1942, 19-year-old Irène is a young Jewish girl living in Paris. She has a passion for theatre and dreams of becoming an actress. Irène rehearses

Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (; ; 4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. Marivaux is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, w ...

's ''

L'Épreuve ''L'Épreuve'' is a one-act play by French playwright Pierre de Marivaux Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (; ; 4 February 1688 – 12 February 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French playwright and novelist. Marivaux is con ...

'' to prepare for an entrance exam to the conservatory.

Cast

* Rebecca Marder as Irène *

André Marcon André Marcon (born 6 July 1948) is a French actor. In 1980 he starred in '' Le Voyage en douce'' directed by Michel Deville. Selected filmography * '' Le Voyage en douce'' (1980) * '' Stolen Life'' (1998) * '' Peau d'Ange'' (2002) * '' The P ...

as André, Irène's father * Anthony Bajon as Igor, Irène's brother *

India Hair India Hair (born 1987) is a French actress. Early life Hair was born in Saumur a town in western France, to an American father and an English mother. She graduated from the regional conservatory of Nantes in 2007 and the Conservatoire national ...

as Viviane, Irène's friend * Françoise Widhoff as Marceline, Irène's grandmother * Florence Viala as Josiane, a neighbor * Ben Attal as Jo * Cyril Metzger as Jacques * Jean Chevalier as Gilbert

Production

In May 2017,

revealed in an interview with ''

Elle Elle may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication ** Elle Style Awards * Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition * Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film * ''Elle: ...

'' magazine that she would be preparing her first feature film and that it was to be a long-term project, which would require a lot of time and work. In an interview with ''

Gala Gala may refer to: Music * ''Gala'' (album), a 1990 album by the English alternative rock band Lush * Gala (singer), Italian singer and songwriter *'' Gala – The Collection'', a 2016 album by Sarah Brightman * GALA Choruses, an association of ...

'' magazine, Kiberlain called the film "extremely personal" and explained, "I had the story in me for ten years, and it took me a long year to write it, alone." Filming began on 17 July 2020 in the

8th arrondissement of Paris The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' (). The ar ...

, for a period of 5 weeks. Filming concluded in August 2020 in

Vexin Vexin () is a historical county of northern France. It covers a verdant plateau on the right bank (north) of the Seine running roughly east to west between Pontoise and Romilly-sur-Andelle (about 20 km from Rouen), and north to south betw ...

, which included shots at

Nesles-la-Vallée Nesles-la-Vallée () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list of the 183 Communes of France, communes of the Val-d'Oise Department ...

on the Sausseron river, as well as a road between

Hédouville Hédouville () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. Geography Hédouville is located just inside Île-de-France, on its border with Hauts-de-France. The town is part of the Parc Naturel Régional du V ...

and Ronquerolles in the

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.< ...

department.

Release

The film was selected as a special screening in the

section at the

, where it had its world premiere on 8 July 2021. It had its theatrical release in France through Ad Vitam Distribution on 26 January 2022.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 82% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 62 out of 100, based on 7 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. ''A Radiant Girl'' received an average rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars on the French website

AlloCiné AlloCiné is an entertainment website founded by Jean-David Blanc in 1988, then joined by Patrick Holzman. It has belonged to the company since 2013 Webedia. which specializes in providing information on French cinema, mostly centering on nove ...

, based on 28 reviews. Jonathan Romney of ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' praised the "highly appealing effusiveness" of Marder's performance but criticized Kiberlain's stylistic choices and the film's "heavy-handed" conclusion: "''A Radiant Girl'' is highly theatrical ..in its emphasis on the nature of stage performance – which often gets the film bogged down in backstage discussion of a sort that can too easily feel alienating to film audiences. This only adds to the awkwardness of a film that - especially in its treatment of one of the gravest topics in modern French history - ultimately feels as callow as its heroine."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Radiant Girl, A 2021 films 2021 directorial debut films 2021 drama films French historical drama films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films 2020s historical drama films Films shot in Paris Films shot in Val-d'Oise Films set in Paris Films set in 1942 Films about actors Films about theatre Films about Jews and Judaism Films produced by Olivier Delbosc Ad Vitam (company) films France 3 Cinéma films