The Blonde with Bare Breasts

La blonde aux seins nus  (English: The Blonde with Bare Breasts) is a 2010 French feature film written and directed by Manuel Pradal.

Production
Filming began in July 29, 2008, for a 9 week period near Paris and the Seine, and by Spring 2009 was completed.

Plot
Julien (Nicolas Duvauchelle), 25-years old, and Louis (Steve le Roi), 14-years old, are brothers. Their father often beat Julien, who defended Louis from also being beaten by him. He is terminally ill now. The brothers do not care much, but try to obtain ownership of his river transport ship, which they already use.

A gang offers money for stealing the Edouard Manet painting 'La blonde aux seins nus' (The Blonde with Bare Breasts) from the museum. They agree, and Louis actually does it, while the young guard Rosalie (Vahina Giocante} is distracted. Rosalie comes after him, onto the ship, but Louis manages to lock her up. Later she is free to move around on the ship. Although she is sometimes treated rudely, she likes the adventure. The police suspect her of being involved. She helps by hiding the painting and herself, when the ship is searched.

Julien and Rosalie have sex. Louis is jealous and pretends to have hung himself by hanging up a life-size doll dressed in his clothes. Julien plans to kill Rosalie, because she knows they stole the painting, Louis tries to protect her by advising her to escape. She returns the painting to her father, who arranges its restoration. The gang that wanted to buy it beats up Julien, out of revenge. Rosalie reunites with the brothers on the ship.

In the meantime, the brothers' father dies. Louis gets the ship, apparently because only he is his real son.

Cast

 * Nicolas Duvauchelle as Julien
 * Vahina Giocante as Rosalie
 * Tomasz Kowalski as Polonais
 * Steve Le Roi as Louis

Release
The film was first released in France on January 16, 2010, and was screened at film festivals, including Le Festival du Film de Cabourg and Cannes. The film had its world premiere in June 2010 in the Netherlands under the French title.

Reception
Of the film's world premiere in the Netherlands, André Waardenburg of NRC Handelsblad wrote "Nederland heeft de wereldpremière. Een dubieuze eer, want de film is niet erg sterk." (The Netherlands has the world premiere. A dubious honor, as the film is not very strong.) He expanded on his review by writing "Net zoals het schilderij heeft de film weinig inhoud. Het probeert van de hoofdpersonages sympathieke schelmen te maken die lak hebben aan het establishment. Dat lukt maar half." (Like the painting, the film has little content. It attempts to make the main characters likeable rogues who have disdain for the establishment. That only half succeeds.) However he did approve of the locations, writing, "De locaties maken een beetje goed: het bezoek aan het schilderachtige plaatsje dat nog de sfeer van de Impressionisten ademt, levert een paar aardige scènes op." (The locations make up for that somewhat: the visit to the picturesque village that still breathes the atmosphere of the Impressionists delivers a few nice scenes.)

Jordan Mintzer of Variety wrote, "Despite what some may consider a promising title, there's unfortunately little to show for it in The Blonde With Bare Breasts", calling Manuel Pradal's film an "aimless intrigue". Referring to Pradal's earlier films, he wrote the film was "clearly a case of style over substance", and offered that the substance of the film was "so ephemeral and misconstrued" that it detracted from Yorgos Arvanitis' otherwise superb location cinematography.