Charlie, a seventeen-year-old girl, comes from a broken family. Her mother was pregnant with her when she was eighteen, but her father is an irresponsible type, who is rambunctious, shows up occasionally, and is rough with Charlie's mother. It may be because of growing up in such a family and suffering from asthma, Charlie has a reserved personality, is reticent in school, and has few friends.
One day, a transfer student Sarah the same age as Charlie came to the school. Sarah is lively and active, the exact opposite of Charlie's personality, but the two can become close friends. Unfortunately, good times don't last, and Sarah soon tires of her friendship with Charlie, but Charlie is determined to keep Sarah by her side. Charlie's psychological battle leads her to a point of no return...
[Respire/Breathe] is the second work directed by the famous French actress Mélanie Laurent. The story is adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name. , by Anne-Sophie Brasme, then seventeen. Looking at the plot synopsis, you may think of the three-hour French film [Blue is the Warmest Colour] which was released in Hong Kong before, but the tension of [Obtaining Friendship] and the explosiveness of the ending, It is incomparable to the former. It can only be said that the stubbornness of young people is beyond the reach of adults (don't forget that Emma in the [Blue] film is much older than Adele).
I have always liked Mélanie Laurent, and her first work [Adoption] was also supported. [Adoption] It is a love sketch, and the results are quite satisfactory. When I came to the second work [Accounting for Friendship], it really taught Li's eyes to shine. Although I haven't read the original book, I guess the story should describe Charlie's psychological state a lot. It is not easy to show a person's psychological state on the screen, and Mélanie Laurent handles this very well; she makes the audience feel Charlie's loneliness and sadness through a group of shots without dialogue. In addition, the scene where Charlie discovers his friend's secret, the scene where he swipes from right to left, is really wonderful. As for the memory fragments of the original work, it is also very appropriate to use the narration method to show them; if it were not handled in this way, the ending would not be as shocking as it is today.
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