The British film How to Have Sex won the Un Certain Regard sub-competition section at the Cannes Film Festival. It brings a bitter image of adolescence as a time when one loses illusions about interpersonal relationships. Debutant director Molly Manning Walker explores sexual violence in it.
Premieres by Pavlo Sladký
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15:31 December 1, 2023 Share on Facebook
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English teenager Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her friends (Lara Peake, Enva Lewis) go on a beach holiday in Crete. They promise her a lot of uninhibited parties full of music by the pool, alcohol and contact with boys. In short, they firmly believe that this will be the best vacation of their lives.
They want to forget what they have behind and in front of them. Among other things, these are the school entrance exams, which will likely decide where their further life paths will go.
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Tara harbors a lot of self-doubt. She doesn’t seem to be as capable and attractive as her friends, and most of all, she would like to lose her virginity, which becomes an unwelcome topic of conversation, which is reduced to how to (already) have sex.
At a resort in Malia, Crete, Tara meets the likable, a little timid and perhaps simple-minded Badger (Shaun Thomas), with whom she seems to want to spend time. But the situation is much more complicated for both under the pressure of circumstances. A carefree teen party breaks into a hangover.
Is a star born?
Tara is played by Mia McKenna-Bruce, an actress who is not very well known internationally. He perfectly portrays his hidden insecurities and loneliness in the crowd, giving the film a strong emotional core. For her performance, McKenna-Bruce earned a nomination for the European Film Award and the film may become the discovery of the year.
How to Have Sex is a straightforward, linearly told and bitterly honest story. But it is not simple. It can act as both a “case study” of sexual violence in a non-stop holiday party environment and a very authentic coming-of-age story from the British lower middle class.
Mia McKenna-Bruce in How to Have Sex | Source: Film Europe
It is certainly not only men who commit various minor betrayals on Tara. Sometimes it’s her friends, sometimes she herself. Due to being set on holidays in the drama, parents and the authority of adults in general are absent. They are otherwise a standard element of coming-of-age stories, where they often represent, for example, generational conflict or perhaps family roots.
How to Have Sex is the impressive debut of British director Molly Manning Walker, who until now has worked mainly as a cinematographer. She shot feature films, but also video clips, for example she shot Radiohead music video for the song Follow Me Around or she helped prepare the accompanying video for the rapper entering under the nickname 645AR skladbu Sum Bout U s featuringem FKA twigs.
These are music videos that significantly work with the shooting method, for example with image division, physicality or fisheye.
Mia McKenna-Bruce in How to Have Sex | Source: Film Europe
Music also plays a significant role in How to Have Sex, where it plays every night until morning. But an even greater role in the image concept is played by darkness filled with neon lights of beach bars and imported, carefully chosen outfits of girls and boys.
Together with the steaming crowd that surrounds Tara, it feels like a labyrinth. There are different exits from it. One leads to the toilet where people go to vomit. Some to the beach or bed for sex. Others into oppressive solitude.
Island realism
Despite the would-be “fancy” holiday setting, some social themes typical of island realism seep into the film.
How to have sex
drama
Great Britain/Greece, 2023, 92 min
Directed by a.sscenery: Molly Manning Walkerová
They play: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Shaun Thomas, Lara Peake, Enva Lewis, Samuel Bottomley, Eilidh Loan, Laura Ambler
Director Molly Manning Walker’s debut puts her in the neighborhood of not only films and series like I can destroy youwhich also thematized sexual violence, but also in connection with the films of her respected compatriot Andrea Arnoldová, the author of films such as American Honey, Wuthering Heights or Fish Tank.
The latter from 2009, which was also shown in the Czech Republic, with its sensitive realism and focus on the teenage heroine Mia, but also with the theme of unwanted sexual attention, can remind us of How to Have Sex more than Greta Gerwig’s films, for example.
The comparison with Andrea Arnold may also indicate that Molly Manning Walker still has a long way to go. At its heart, How to Have Sex is a straightforward, linearly told story, but it is brilliantly executed. It is decorated with authenticity, the excellent performance of the lead actress and convincing direction.
The film Jak mít sex presented the Czech preview at the Be2Can festival. Cinemas play it from November 30, 2023.
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2023-12-01 14:31:00
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