Bande De Filles (Girlhood) (2014)

As we have seen in previous films Water lilies and Tomboy, Céline Sciamma understands the contradiction of youth; both a raging, uncertain storm of puberty coupled with the beautiful flirtation of boundless discovery and explosive energy. After exploring prevalent adolescence issues of unconventional love and definition of self, in Girlhood Sciamma explores another complex aspect of growing up in the form of friendship and its ability to save from and transcend life’s difficulties. However wrongly many have drawn parallels between Girlhood and a combination of La Haine and Boyhood, but Girlhood is an altogether a more delicate and subtle exploration of youth than the other two. But whatever you do, don’t call Girlhood a coming of age film! Annoyingly it have become a persistent trend now to label every film that concerns young people in any capacity as ‘coming of age’. But what does coming of age actually mean and what age are we coming into? Generally such films chart the transition between adolescence to some state of adulthood, instigated by some sort of journey of love, pain, self-awareness and friendship they underwent. Wait hold on a minute! A Journeys of love, pain, self-awareness and friendship are not the sole experience of teenagers. No matter what your age is, isn’t life a constant journey of self-discovery and pursuit of happiness? I feel such an umbrella term as ‘coming of age’ is a rather misguiding and ultimately redundant notion, because coming of age is assuming at the end of adolescences you’re the finished article or the complete you. But that is simply not true, the change from adolescence to adulthood acts as a mere first step in a life time of laughter, tears and learning. And in Girlhood there is plenty of laughter, tears and learning as we follow Vic who after being told by her teacher she has to go down a vocational route instead of high school, falls in with a local girl gang consisting of leader Lady, and followers Adiatou and Fily. While on the surface stealing from shops, and fighting would constitutes as gang activities, the gang comes at a time when Vic is at the brunt end of an abusive over bearing older brother and great disappointment in her academics. So actually the term ‘gang’ would act like a foreign term to Vic, because to her the group quickly becomes a structure of support, happiness and friendship. From oversized hoodies and baggy jeans, to leggings and a leather jacket on the surface it could seem like an ugly duckling to beautiful swoon transformation. Yet the biggest change occurs on a more profound, deeper level as she begins to understand life doesn’t begin and end amongst the walls of her house or classroom and in fact past the concrete and cerement life can truly begin. With the new found confidence she is able to find love and more importantly she goes from being brother victim to winning a fight and eventually leaving her house. There was undoubtedly a great spirit in the film and the relationship between the girls were very endearing during their more jovial scenes. However unfortunately at the end of film I felt a rather jarring sensation of having a lot of unanswered questions about plot and characters. For example the school element was introduced rather early in the film and it seemed that not going to high school was of great disappointment for Vic, but as the plot progressed the concept of school became lost in the maraud of other plotlines. The most important one was of course her new friends, we never actually explored Vic’s relationship with the group as individuals particularly Lady, so you were never really clearly aware of their initial intentions of bringing her into the group and as to way they were able to bond so fiercely. However the most frustrating part of the story was how in the end it made illusions as to Vic supposedly transgenderism when she begins to dress and act far more masculine, if this is the case then I feel Sciamma should have alluded and illuminated this earlier in the film. On the other hand, it would prove to be a great disservice to Sciamma film if I only highlighted the negative. Don’t get me wrong, Girlhood has its flaws, many films have its flaws but the best ones have a far brighter silver lining to draw your eyes away from the negatives. Girlhood was an enjoyable film filled with fun, compelling characters and very natural and vibrant acting to accompany them. The cast of Girlhood consisted of a largely unknown cast, most of the girl where found on regular trips to estates, malls and on streets. With films like Kids and City of God as examples, I generally feel this type of casting works very well for smaller interment pieces. The main actors of Girlhood in particular were able to bring real naturalism and personal experiences into their roles and in effect they added more depth to them. And who can forget the Rhianna Diamonds scene, where all the girls cast in bright blue give a fun lip syncing performance of the song? The scene was funny, cute and made impossible not to sing along with it. Rhi Rhi would be proud.