review for 36 Fillette on AllMovie

After almost a decade of working as a screenwriter, Catherine Breillat returned to directing for the controversial drama 36 Fillette. Criticized for supposedly portraying indecent adolescent sexuality, the story actually focuses on a realistically bratty teenage girl. The complex character of Lili is convincingly played by Delphine Zentout as a rude, confused, and utterly defiant youth. Admittedly, this doesn't make for a very entertaining or contemplative film, but rather one that truthfully exposes the brutal emotional turns of a young girl's awakening sexuality. It works against unnecessary squeamishness because Lili displays a callous, defiant attitude and total ownership of her hyper-feminine body, while at the same time she's completely at a loss of what to do next. In her scene with the musician Boris (Jean-Pierre Leaud, who himself played the defiant youth in The 400 Blows), she reveals a cocky awareness that attempts to hide her inexperienced naïveté. However, the real power struggle comes out in the hotel scene with middle-aged Maurice (Etienne Chicot), where she constantly deviates between total repulsion and a desperate search for thrills. Unfortunately, the ending does become tedious as the characters start talking in circles and nothing much happens, while Maurice reveals himself to be nothing more than a stereotype. Appreciated only by audiences who admire brutal honesty over story line, 36 Fillette is still an achievement for Catherine Breillat, who elaborates on this subject matter in her later work.