''17 Girls'' (french: 17 filles) is a 2011 French

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film about 17 teenage girls who make a pregnancy pact. The film was screened at the 2011

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

and the

2011 Cannes Film Festival The 64th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition. South Ko ...

. ''17 Girls'' is based on the alleged pregnancy pact that took place at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts in 2008. The 2010 American film ''

The Pregnancy Pact ''The Pregnancy Pact'' is a 2010 American teen drama television film directed by Rosemary Rodriguez and starring Thora Birch, Madisen Beaty, and Camryn Manheim, based on the allegedly true story of a 2008 media circus surrounding a large group of ...

'' is based on the same story.

Plot

In Lorient, 17 teenage girls from the same high school make an unexpected decision, incomprehensible to the boys and adults. They decide to get pregnant at the same time. Camille (Louise Grinberg) lives alone with her mother who is overwhelmed by her work. She becomes pregnant after a condom problem with a sexual partner who is not her boyfriend. She is the first to discover a positive pregnancy test. She wants to keep her child, which will convince the others to become pregnant and they can all raise their children together. These girls do not want to comply with the traditional code of conduct and just want to "give the love they have to a baby." Emancipation, is the keyword of these girls who build a plan to no longer be reflections of their parents. "We will be only 16 years apart from our kids, this is ideal. We will be closer in age, no clash of generations!" They decide to educate their future children together in the form of a "hippie community." In the end, Camille loses her baby after a minor traffic accident. She and her mother leave town without telling anyone where they've gone. The other girls have their babies, but they do not form a "community." One girl is miserable as a young unwed mother and seems to regret her decision to have a child so young, another girl had to dropout of school and work long hours in a dead-end

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

job to support her child, another girl decides to give her child up for

adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

to a more affluent couple from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and another has her baby with the help and support of her parents who will help raise the kid while she finishes high school and later studies at college.

Cast

Louise Grinberg Louise Grinberg (born 1993) is a French actress. Career She made her film debut in 2008 in the French drama'' The Class ''where she played a schoolgirl. The film won a Golden Palm at Cannes. After participat ...

: Camille *

Esther Garrel Esther Garrel (born 18 February 1991) is a French actress. She is most known for her roles in '' 17 Girls'' (2011), ''Jealousy'' (2013), ''Call Me by Your Name'' (2017), and ''Thirst Street'' (2017). Early life Garrel was born in Paris, the daug ...

: Flavie *

Roxane Duran Roxane Duran (born 27 January 1993) is a French-Austrian actress. She appeared in the Palme d'Or-winning 2009 film '' The White Ribbon''. She also acted in the '' Le moine'', a 2011 French-language film directed by Dominik Moll, an adaptation o ...

: Florence * Solène Rigot : Mathilde * Juliette Darche : Julia * : Clementine *

Florence Thomassin Florence Thomassin (born 24 June 1966) is a French actress and sculptor. In 2001, Thomassin was nominated for a César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Beatrice in Bernard Rapp's ''A Question of Taste ''A Question of Taste'' ...

: Camille's mother *

Noémie Lvovsky Noémie Lvovsky (; born 14 December 1964) is a French film director, screenwriter, and actress. Life and career Born in Paris in 1964, Lvovsky is the daughter of Jewish parents who emigrated from Ukraine to flee pogroms. She studied cinema at L ...

: high school nurse * : the headmaster * Frédéric Noaille : Florian * Arthur Verret : Tom * : Clementine's mother *

Serge Moati Serge Moati (born Henry Moati; 17 August 1946) is a French journalist, television presenter, film director and writer. He is the brother of Nine Moati, author of the novel '' Les Belles de Tunis''. As is his sister, Serge Moati is a French citi ...

: TV journalist

Reception

Premiere magazine A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

likened ''17 Girls'' to ''

The Virgin Suicides ''The Virgin Suicides'' is a 1993 debut novel by the American author Jeffrey Eugenides. The fictional story, which is set in Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s, centers on the lives of five doomed sisters, the Lisbon girls. The novel is wr ...

'' by

Sofia Coppola Sofia Carmina Coppola (; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and actress. The youngest child and only daughter of filmmakers Eleanor Coppola, Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her film debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed ...

saying "same languid pop, same delicately grainy picture, same kind of heterogeneous female cast, same absence of boys, reduced to the roles of stooges".

Awards and nominations

*Nominated for the

Camera d'Or A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

at the

*Won the Michel d'Ornano Award at the

Deauville American Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival (french: Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, link=no) is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Cho ...

*Nominated for the 2012

César Award for Best First Feature Film The César Award for Best First Feature Film (french: César du meilleur premier film) is an award presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma since 1982. It was originally named the César Award for Best Debut (César de la meil ...

References

External links

* {{Delphine and Muriel Coulin 2011 films 2010s French-language films French pregnancy films Teenage pregnancy in film Films directed by Delphine and Muriel Coulin 2010s pregnancy films