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''Puppylove'' is a 2013 coming-of-age film directed by Delphine Lehericey, written by Lehericey and Martin Coiffier, and starring
Solène Rigot Solène Rigot (born 1992) is a French actress and musician. She is mostly known for playing the lead role in the Belgian movie '' Puppylove''. Career Her first big role was in '' 17 Girls''. Her performance was praised in the French movie '. S ...
, Audrey Bastien, and
Vincent Pérez Vincent Perez (born 10 June 1964) is a Swiss actor, director and photographer. He played the title character, Ashe Corven, in '' The Crow: City of Angels'', and starred in '' Queen of the Damned'', playing Marius de Romanus. Some of his films i ...
. It is an international co-production of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Rigot plays a 14-year-old girl who, after she meets her new neighbor, played by Bastien, explores her sexuality. The film premiered at the
San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...
and was released 7 May 2014 in Belgium. It won a
Magritte Award for Best Original Score The Magritte Award for Best Original Score (French language, French: Magritte de la meilleure musique originale) is an award presented annually by the Académie André Delvaux. It is one of the Magritte Awards, which were established to recognize ...
.


Plot

Diane, a 14-year-old girl who lives with her younger brother Marc and her father Christian, is eager to explore her sexuality. When she visits her friend Antoine, the two strip naked and get into bed together. As Antoine kisses her and calls her beautiful, she tells him that she would prefer not to talk. He apologizes, and the two try to get comfortable in various sexual positions. Eventually, they are overcome by awkwardness and decide not to have sex. Antoine takes her back home. There, her father catches her watching hardcore pornography, and she ignores his demands that she turn it off. Exasperated, he leaves. During school, Diane's friends discuss whether losing one's virginity is painful. Diane meets with Antoine again, and they briefly hang out together at his house. He requests that she stays, but she leaves for her own. Through her window, she sees her new neighbor, Julia, as the girl's father berates her. Annoyed, Julia pulls her curtains shut. As Diane and her family eat dinner, Julia introduces herself and requests help finding a local piano teacher. Christian and Diane promise to help. At school, Diane approaches Julia with the name of a piano teacher, but Julia says that she only said that to meet Diane. The two strike a friendship, and Diane invites Julia to a party. Julia tells her parents that she is sleeping over at Diane's house, but Christian expresses no concerns with Diane's attendance. Diane brushes off Antoine and leaves to find Julia, who is about to go on a car ride with two boys. Julia invites Diane to join her on condition that Diane does not attempt to stop Julia from doing anything. As Julia and a boy have sex, Diane and the other boy exit the car. After the second boy becomes aggressive and sexually harasses Diane, the girls walk home. Diane is hurt when she sees Antoine and Julia together at school. After football practice, Diane wanders into the male showers completely naked, and the coach calls her father to pick her up. As they drive home, Diane asks Christian whether he is sexually attracted to her, and she becomes annoyed as Christian fumbles to find an appropriate answer. As Julia and Diane grow closer, they flirt with each other and kiss. Their families also become more friendly, and Diane goes on a vacation with Julia and her parents. There, Julia seduces a bartender. Although Diane initially refuses to join the two in a threesome, she later knocks on the door and watches the two have sex. Julia encourages Diane to have casual sex with a man at a club, but after he demands that she perform oral sex on him, Diane insists that she and Julia leave. Diane is surprised to find her father has a woman in the house, and the noise of their sex kept her awake all the night. In the morning, she berates her father for his irresponsible behavior, as he has not woken up Marc and gotten him prepared for school. Later, the two girls went on a trip with Christian and Marc. Julia flirts with Christian despite Diane's discomfort, and the girls engage in a threesome with a local man, Paul. Julia flashes Christian, and as he stares at Julia, Diane chastises him. After Christian becomes drunk that night, Julia kisses and undresses him. Christian weakly pushes her away and tells her that it is a bad idea, but she continues to seduce him. Christian eventually caves in, and the two had sex outside against a tree. As Diane looks for her friend, she is disgusted to see the two having sex, and she slaps her father. Christian apologizes to her, and as she storms off, he drives after her. After he picks her up again, Diane asks Julia whether she would run away with her if she asked. Uninterested, Julia says that she would not, and Diane walks into the traffic at a busy road, much to the horror of the others. The film ends as Diane stands on the other side of the road and smiles.


Cast

*
Solène Rigot Solène Rigot (born 1992) is a French actress and musician. She is mostly known for playing the lead role in the Belgian movie '' Puppylove''. Career Her first big role was in '' 17 Girls''. Her performance was praised in the French movie '. S ...
as Diane * Audrey Bastien as Julia *
Vincent Pérez Vincent Perez (born 10 June 1964) is a Swiss actor, director and photographer. He played the title character, Ashe Corven, in '' The Crow: City of Angels'', and starred in '' Queen of the Damned'', playing Marius de Romanus. Some of his films i ...
as Christian * Vadim Goldberg as Marc * Theo Gladsteen as Antoine *
Joel Basman Joel Basman (born 23 January 1990) is a Swiss actor best known for having played Franz Kafka in the ARD Miniseries ''Kafka'' (2024) Early life Basman was born in Zurich, Switzerland, to a Swiss Christian mother and an Israeli-Jewish father ...
as Paul *
Thomas Coumans Thomas Coumans (born 16 September 1984) is a Belgian actor. His father Yvefilms was a stage director, and he graduated from the Higher National Institute of Performing Arts (I.N.S.A.S.) in Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Cap ...
as the bartender * Jan Hammenecker as Yann * Valérie Bodson as Catherine


Soundtrack

The soundtrack is by the Belgian duo Soldout.


Release

''Puppylove'' premiered on 21 September 2013 at the
San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...
and was released 7 May 2014 in Belgium.


Reception

Jonathan Holland of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' wrote, "More a forum for debate than fully achieved piece of work, this intriguing, misguided film is unsettling in ways it may not itself understand."


Awards


References


Further reading

* * *


External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, puppylove 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s French films 2010s French-language films 2013 directorial debut films 2013 drama films 2013 films 2013 LGBTQ-related films Belgian coming-of-age drama films Belgian LGBTQ-related films French coming-of-age drama films French-language Belgian films French-language Swiss films French LGBTQ-related films Films about juvenile sexuality LGBTQ-related coming-of-age drama films Luxembourgian drama films Luxembourgian LGBTQ-related films Swiss drama films Swiss LGBTQ-related films 2010s Belgian films