''Breathe'' (french: Respire) is a 2014 French

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film directed by

Mélanie Laurent Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, and singer. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Globally, she is best known for her role ...

, based on the novel of the same name by Anne-Sophie Brasme. The film stars

Joséphine Japy Joséphine Japy (born 12 July 1994) is a French actress. She made her debut in the 2005 film ', directed by Yves Angelo. In 2014, she played the lead role of Charlie in the film '' Respire'', which was presented in the International Critics' W ...

Lou de Laâge Lou de Laâge (born 27 April 1990) is a French actress.Thierry Chèze '' L'Express'', April 11, 2013Sophie GrassinLou de Laâge, le charme à l'état pur ''Le Figaro'', May 11, 2012Khadija Moussou5 choses à savoir sur Lou de Laâge ''Elle'', She ...

and

Isabelle Carré Isabelle Carré (born 28 May 1971) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 70 films since 1989. She won a César Award for Best Actress for her role in '' Se souvenir des belles choses'' (2001), and has been nominated a further six ti ...

. It was screened in the

International Critics' Week The International Critics' Week (french: Semaine de la Critique) was founded in 1962 and is organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created following the showing of '' The Connection'' directed by Shirley Clarke which had been ...

section at the

2014 Cannes Film Festival The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film '' Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri Bi ...

. It was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...

. In January 2015, the film received three nominations at the 20th Lumières Awards and also two nominations at the 40th César Awards.

Plot

Charlie (

) is a teenage high school student whose parents are breaking up. At school she is assigned to take care of new student Sarah (

) who has recently moved from Nigeria, where her mother works, to live with her aunt. The two quickly become inseparable. During

All Saints' Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the church, whether they are know ...

Sarah tells Charlie that her mother is unable to visit and she'll be alone. Charlie invites Sarah to spend time with her mother and her mother's friends for the holiday. Sarah's attitude towards Charlie abruptly changes when they are on vacation when Charlie introduces Sarah as a classmate and not as a friend. Sarah then alternates between being warm to Charlie and being cold and freezing her out. When they return from their vacation Sarah ignores Charlie and Charlie practices asking her what is wrong when she sees her at school. However, when Sarah gets to school Charlie warmly embraces her acting as though nothing is wrong. Charlie continues to grow suspicious of Sarah and the way she acts. In front of their group of friends she points out inconsistencies in Sarah's stories about her mother. Sarah casually threatens to tell Charlie's friends about her abusive father, which Charlie confided to her in secret. In order to find out the truth about Sarah, Charlie follows her home from school where she learns she lives in a rough part of town with her alcoholic mother. At a New Year's party Charlie tells Sarah that she saw her mother and that she, Sarah, isn't really mean. Sarah threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, and the two stop being friendly. After Charlie hears Sarah telling another one of their friends that Charlie never lost her virginity with her ex Lucas because she cried too much, she threatens to tell everyone about Sarah's mother. In retaliation Sarah graffitis "Charlie is a whore" all over the school. Though her friends try to rally around her, Charlie does nothing to stop Sarah's abuse. Eventually Sarah shows up at Charlie's house crying because her mother hit her and she felt she had nowhere else to go. Charlie readily forgives her, telling her that she is only upset when they're apart. However, the next day at school Sarah once again ignores her, even giving a necklace she was given by Charlie's mom to another girl as a present. Charlie lashes out by attacking the girl. Sarah comes by Charlie's place to collect her things after school is out for the summer. They sit on Charlie's bed, and Sarah taunts Charlie by saying that Charlie is an abuser playing a victim. Sarah tells Charlie that she plans to move to Paris with another friend to attend college while Charlie will be stuck in their small town for the rest of her life. Charlie cracks and pushes Sarah, who hits her head on a drawer. Sarah climbs back up and falls back onto the bed and begins laughing. Enraged and extremely distraught, Charlie suffocates her with a pillow. When Charlie's mother returns home, Charlie cries an apology, telling her mother that "She is upstairs," before having a panic attack. Her mother goes upstairs and screams upon finding Sarah's body. Charlie manages to slow down her breathing and looks directly into the camera before it cuts to black.

Cast

as Charlie *

as Sarah *

as Vanessa *

Claire Keim Claire Keim (born Claire Lefebvre 8 July 1975) is a French actress and singer. Biography Keim was born in Senlis, Oise to an architect father and a dentist mother. She is in a relationship with French footballer Bixente Lizarazu, and lives in S ...

as Laura *

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 ...

as Victoire *

Fanny Sidney Fanny Sidney (born Fanny Mauferon; April 5, 1987) is a French actress and director. Career Sidney was born on April 5, 1987, in Paris. She attended the Conservatoire Municipal Hector Berlioz (2005-2006) then took part in the free class of Cours ...

as Isa *

Carole Franck Carole Franck (born 1970 in Paris) is a French actress. Filmography Dubbing Theatre References External links * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franck, Carole Living people French film actresses French television actresses Actresses from Par ...

as Sarah's mother *

Marie Denarnaud Marie Denarnaud (born 1978) is a French actress. She has appeared in numerous films including ''Chaos'' (2001), '' Eager Bodies'' (2003), ''The Adopted'' (2011) and '' Une histoire banale'' (2014). She has also participated in the made-for-tele ...

as Marie * Thomas Solivéres as Gastine * Camille Claris as Delphine * Alejandro Albarracín as Esteban * Radivoje Bukvic as Charlie's father * Louka Meliava as Lucas *

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 ...

as Louise *

Anne Marivin Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Production

Filming took place in

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hos ...

from 25 November 2013 to January 2014.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a rating of 93% positive reviews, based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Breathe'' finds writer-director Mélanie Laurent opening a sensitive, well-acted window into the bittersweet upheaval of adolescence."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a rating of 78 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{Mélanie Laurent 2014 films 2014 drama films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s female buddy films 2010s high school films 2010s psychological drama films 2010s teen drama films 2010s buddy drama films Films directed by Mélanie Laurent Films based on French novels French buddy drama films French coming-of-age drama films French female buddy films French high school films 2010s French-language films French psychological drama films French teen drama films Gaumont Film Company films 2010s French films