La Fonte Des Neiges (2009)
By James Bontemps
La Fonte des neiges (2009) is one of my favorite short films.
Directed by Jean-Julien Chervier and featuring Géraldine Martineau and Marc Beffa, the film handles the controversial theme of coming of age in a natural and funny way, that does not exploit, but does not hide anything either.
The film follows a few days of a holiday when Leo (Marc Beffa), a twelve-year-old child, is forced to follow his mother to a nudist camp.
At first he is deeply shy, and responds by wearing extra clothes. After meeting beautiful young Antoinette (Géraldine Martineau), Leo slowly becomes more relaxed and is encouraged by Antoinette to embrace nudity and explore the natural beauty of her body.
I have known a lot of young girls that were 13 or 14 and looked 18 or 19, but Géraldine Martineau is the opposite, appearing to be 12 or 13, when she was actually over 20 when the film was shot.
Her face, and body are perfect for playing the part of a young adolescent girl.