Teenage self-assurance takes a serious hit in Stereo Girls but its sense of friendship and fun is strong enough to go to some dark places without losing its way. It’s an even bigger joy to see a movie about teenage girls who have such a strong sense of themselves, even if they are also immature idiots. That’s not an insult! No one seventeen isn’t! It’s also fairly clear that for director Caroline Deruas, who co-wrote the script with Maud Ameline and Johane Chouaib, this is thinly-veiled autobiography. It’s really rare for a story this personal to have such a good sense of humour, and despite some of the bleakness the self-awareness and the silliness ensures a smile will stay on your face.
It’s the early 90s and Liza (Louiza Aura) and Charlotte (Léna Garrel, the director’s daughter) are BFFs in their French coastal town. They are both outcasts in school for reasons beyond their uncoolness: Charlotte has not quite been able to figure out that she’s a lesbian, and Liza is mixed-race. Liza has also had a years-long crush on the widowed gym teacher (Aymeric Lompret), which she knows is unwanted, unencouraged, inappropriate and all in her head, but it’s how she feels. Anyway who cares, they have each other, and the moment school is over they are going to leave for Paris with their band, The Dirty Panties, and become famous rock stars. Is that band name something they might want to think through a little bit more? Despite all their practice sessions in Liza’s bedroom, shouldn’t they have more than one and a half songs? Oh shut up, of course not, what could possibly go wrong?
The French title – The Immortals (Les immortelles) – emphasizes the enduring nature of the girls’ friendship, with the English title provides the interesting and accurate sense of an echo chamber as well as a focus on the music and songs by Calypso Valois. The mock TV interviews and music videos, which accurately capture the inexplicable cheesiness of French culture – if you saw the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, imagine everything on TV being like that on a tenth of that budget all the time – are as fun as the silly songs and the girls cracking each other up. But their plan of course does not come to pass, with a plot twist that really shouldn’t be spoiled. This means there’s a nice pivot to how Charlotte’s unhappily married mother (Emmanuelle Béart) must somehow crack through teenage narcissism and self-pity in order to keep Charlotte’s life on the rails. And in an really unusual choice for a movie about teenagers, none of the parents here care if their kids go to college.
The dream sequences often match the tone of the faux music videos for weird imagery and sound design. Vincent Biron’s smeary cinematography matches the look of cheap TV while somehow providing a sense of paying these kids great and kind attention. Ms. Garrel keeps the childish gurning to a minimum as the teenage misbehaviour and other foolish antics start to pile up in a surprisingly fun and nuanced performance. Ms. Aura has the tougher but less dramatic part and manages to convey both an age-appropriate lack of self-awareness as well as great maturity. The overall effect handles the tonal swerves with a remarkable lightness of touch and the final impression is of incredible charm. Stereo Girls won’t change the world, but its sense of humour about how young women grow up makes it special indeed.
At the Venice Film Festival it was preceded by the short Italian film Restare (Remains), about a farmhand and a waitress whose relationship is about to be cut short. Director Fabio Bobbio doesn’t quite manage the pacing, but Zackari Delmas and Yile Yara Vianello as the young lovers more than make up for that.
Stereo Girls (Les Immortelles) recently played at the Venice International Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Venice site for the title.
You might also like…
‘Milk Teeth’ Film Review: On Finding Your Place in the World