You Will Be Mine (2009) User Reviews (6)

Ambivalence and possession

[tux-12 · 5/10 · 25 September 2009]

This film is about attraction and repulsion between two female students, Emma (Isild Le Besco) and Marie (Judith Davis). Romance between girls can turn well and become real love as it was shown in the very light comedy "Imagine me and you". But it can also present real pain and end up in drama as in "Lost and Delirious". "Je te mangerais" belongs to this second category.

Emma lives on her own in her parents huge flat in Lyon. Her father is dead, and her mother has vanished some time ago without giving any more news. She offers her only friend Marie to rent a bedroom in the flat, so that this one could pursue her studies of piano at the prestigious local music academy. From the day Mary moves in, we can see the development of a difficult lesbian relationship between the two girls. Emma becomes obsessed by Marie and tries everything to conquer her, but mainly with counter productive effects. Mary, navigates between confused, interested, tempted, scared, irritated and even disgusted feelings. She eventually becomes even cruel when after leaving the flat, she decides to come back with her new boyfriend.

Both actresses do a good job but I really did not like the characters they play. You do no find the search of ideal and passion, expressed by Piper Perabo. Overall the whole film is a bit slow, predictable and joyless. It is not bad, but on the same subject I would rate the film from Léa Pool much higher.

Wrong Note Rag

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 6 December 2014]

There's no doubt about it; if you're a Classical music buff you could do a lot worse than monitoring French cinema for, say, the last decade or two where you can select from such titles as Un Coeur en hiver, Les Chorists, The Piano Tutor, The Freelancers, My Children Are Not Like Others, All The Mornings Of The World, to name only six. Supplementing those titles is this feature debut by Sophie Laloy, best known as a technician in the Sound department, which rejoices in at least three separate titles, the original French (Je te mangerais), plus two English translations, Highly Strung and You Will Be Mine. Whether by accident or design it tens to resist classification and/or genre. Gifted pianist Marie has a chance to study for a year at the conservatory in Lyon but can't swing the freight on a room so she accepts an invitation from Emma, whom she hasn't seen since they were children, to share a large flat in the city which Emma more or less inherited from her parents (dead father, missing mother). Naturally Emma turns out to be a world-class Control Freak as well as a fully paid up Lesbian and as this is glaringly obvious in the first two reels it only remains for the director to decide whether she is making a psychological thriller or a Valentine to the sisterhood but it seems she has something of a Hamlet issue so the film caroms between the two genres like a pinball in a machine. Despite this it remains highly watchable and well acted by the two leads.

Some brave choices in a not an entirely successful movie

[lazarillo · 25 February 2013]

This is a French movie about an obsessive lesbian relationship. It resembles "Single White Female" in that has it has two young college students--an aspiring musician (Judith Davis) and a medical student (Isilde Lebesco)--sharing a flat in Lyon for financial reasons when one becomes dangerously obsessed with the other. The movie does make several brave choices, however, they don't quite work out and they perhaps serve to make the movie not quite as effective as it could be.

First off, the movie really opts for realism and doesn't really cross into the lurid thriller territory of "Single White Female" or a lot of Hollywood fare. This is an admirable in a way, but it also makes it somewhat less entertaining. Of course Claude Chabrol has made an entire career of these slow-burning French thriller/melodramas, but the director here doesn't quite have his talent. The movie also doesn't really go for the lesbian sex angle. The lesbian relationship actually remains largely unconsummated and curiously, for a FRENCH movie, this actually has significantly LESS sex and nudity than "Single White Female" (it's the only movie of hers I've seen where the voluptuous Isild Lebesco does NOT take her clothes off). The movie also chooses to make both of the leads rather unsympathetic--one character is a self-involved opportunist while the other is a stalker--but then this is true of "Single White Female" as well, and is not necessarily a serious problem.

Despite its flaws, however, I did watch this movie from beginning to end, and I can't say I'm sorry I did. Isild Lebesco is great in this. She's a very compelling actress (even with her clothes on!)and I think she could give a lot of Anglophone actresses a serious run for the money. Judith Davis is also quite good. This is no lesbian stalker classic. It's not as good as "Lost and Delirious" or "Single White Female" (although they're all very different movies), but it works better than some (like the recent "Jack and Diane"). It's not great, but I don't regret having watched it either.

disappointed

[thisissubtitledmovies · 4/10 · 1 September 2010]

Since the world was first disturbed by Fatal Attraction in 1987, the viewing public has been treated to many homages to this classic tale of obsessive love gone horribly wrong, and this film follows in what has now become something of a cinematic tradition.

It is not clear exactly which experiences she had herself, but for anyone looking for a quality lesbian storyline, this would be a poor choice, even though distributors Peccadillo have the title on their lesbian list. Nor is it the perfect choice if one is looking for a story of obsessive love - if sexual orientation is not important to you in a plot, look no further than the towering performance of Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher – that is how obsession and desire should be played.

Rather than offering a satisfactory lesbian storyline or indeed a gripping tale of obsession and its consequences, Highly Strung is more a story about the emotional immaturity of a number of people in their late teens or early twenties, and so it adds nothing new to this sub-genre. Disappointing. GR

Better than expected

[margru22-484-125518 · 8/10 · 22 July 2015]

This movie is definitely worth seeing, and has nothing to do with the movies like "Single White Female", or even "Lost and Delirious", etc. It is not a French version of some obsession thriller, and has nothing to do with "Fatal Attraction", or other ideologically really sexist movies. I guess many people disqualify this movie even before watching exactly because of these unjust and incorrect comparisons, which are really misleading. The film is about two really young girls, one of whom is just a bit older. They are from the beginning very attracted to each other, emotionally and sexually definitely, and they need each other just in very different ways. The love and attraction is sometimes very difficult, and very unfair, disturbing, and intertwined with a lot of morally ambiguous issues, and complications. But it is definitely not just an obsession from one side, it is obsession and sexual fascination from both sides, just it is the pianist who is trying to turn her own obsession for the other girl into being a good pianist, and keeps avoiding physical contact, suffering and enjoying it at the same time. But there is no doubt that the touch of the other girl makes her lose all her control and brings her sexual electro-shocks. That is why the pianist does not mind sleeping with men, because with them she is not losing control, which is not the case with her sexual contact with the girl. It is even actually surprising how quickly the pianist makes clear that she is not crazy about men, at all. For her they are just OK, she can handle them, because she does not fall in love with them.

It is also true that the movie is not entirely successful in all its aspects, i.e. it is not really totally understandable for wide audience. It does require a musically educated, at least a little bit, viewer. Also, it does require a viewer who understands to which extent ambitious young people have to be dedicated to the art, if they want to be better than the others. The Marie, the piano student, simply has to make priorities between her uncontrollable and unpredictable encounter with that weird girl,Ema, and, on the other side, her dedication to piano studies. She can give all her sexual energy only to one of them, not both. The paradox is that Ema is the only one from her surrounding who is very intelligent and really understands Marie's talent and work with piano, and who would do anything to help her. But the accent of the movie is on the playing classical music, and how the sexual ecstasy with another person needs to be subordinated to this music.

It is simply a movie about how complicated and unrewarding love sometimes can be, confronted with other demands in life. It is definitely not a movie for someone who expects some classical lesbian love plot. But it is a movie about very passionate feelings, and in spite of subordination of love to the music, the film is highly erotic and exciting in all its dimensions.

An interesting gem I was glad to find

[writersmorgue · 9/10 · 17 September 2022]

This movie is a perfect example of why I tell those to first try and keep an open mind when viewing entertainment. I encourage you to watch it before reading this review and all others.

When we're judging anything it's often based on our personal desires, what we've read and our own expectations off of that. Expectations give way to disappointment. The reason why personal expectation often proves as the wrong tool to use for a critic is because rarely do we ask THE most important question... what was the director (and/or writer) trying to accomplish?

Now even without knowing what the director/writer was trying to accomplish, I still try and keep neutral in judgment with a personal preference for a good plot line.. at least.

Isilde Lebesco is one of my favorite actresses and directors. She often takes risks-and from what I've noticed-brings light to things hidden in the dark. Interesting character displays that you may not favor in a person, but resemble reality, true emotions, situations and people that are among us in our daily lives. It's what drove me to view more of her work and I happened to stumble across this interesting movie.

Now I haven't found much on the director's intentions for this movie (as much of the videos I found are in french with no english translation), but I'm guessing the intentions and meaning were along the lines of merely depicting a potentially real situation amongst two women. If that were the case, I personally could not be mad at how this movie turned out. Because if this were a real situation? Realistically, anything could've happened, the possible endings are countless and it had to end with one.

Also I've noticed that endings in quite a bit of European films are dramatic or bitter to most.

Personal opinions:

Did I like the ending? No. Was it realistic for the current situation? Yes.

I enjoyed the plot but wish there was more expansion on the characters and the scene's themselves as a lot of the scenes seem cut throat, like they want you to get the gist of what's happening only.

The two women undergo many emotions with each other. The events are slow growing which I usually appreciate, but not here when there is missing character development and you have all these scenes where you have to decipher what is happening based off of a drawn out, non-talking setting that lasts 2-5 minutes. You get the picture and it's nice to see the actresses reactions as if you're in the room, experiencing it with them. But for the plots sake? I wish there was more to show for the two women and their relationship.

Why did I not like the ending? Well what if you had a friend who complained how they hated their cat but wants the cat to live with them, while at the same time doesn't want the cat around.. wouldn't that aggravate you?

In conclusion, I've literally seen this movie 5 plus times and enjoy these eye opening, reality driven, lesbian movies and those type movies in general. This will forever remain a favorite of mine and I'm glad it exists. Passion, obsession, repulsion, lust and all.