Catherine Breillat’s shocking story of male violence

It doesn’t take Elena long to find a man for a date: Fernando, an older student who is only interested in using her for sex. He is manipulative and uses his charm to lure her into bed – which is just inches from where Anais sleeps. But of course Anais isn’t sleeping; she’s watching everything and is fascinated by this encounter – a silent voyeur. Soon Anais becomes uncomfortable as she realizes that this is hardly a consensual situation. Elena is scared, but she wants to impress Fernando. She withdraws her consent at the last minute, not ready to throw herself in the deep end yet.

He pressures her, threatening to break up with her if she doesn’t allow him to have sex. It’s painful to watch; Breillat forces us to witness this situation, with the camera repeatedly panning back to Anais to convey the heightened tension in the room. The scene is claustrophobic and unsettling, but Breillat knows she needs to show Fernando’s behavior to really convey how sexual violence and male entitlement occur. Even in the perceived safety of Elena and Anais’ bedroom, with a man she considers charming, attractive, and smart, Elena is not safe. She is being manipulated by him, and his behavior, which alternates between threatening and dominant and friendly and witty, prevents her from fully realizing that she has just been raped.

Breillat contrasts the two sisters – Anais is overweight while Elena is conventionally pretty. It is clear that Anais envies Elena’s ability to attract boys, while feeling unattractive and unwanted herself. Anais’ experiences are marked by a mixture of jealousy and envy with fear and anxiety. The two have been exposed to the adult sexual world too early and their experiences prove to be anything but romantic. As Elena becomes more and more attached to Fernando, the discovery of an engagement ring by her parents leads to the holiday being cut short. From here we enter the final part of the film, which takes a darker and unexpected turn.

While driving on the highway at night, Anaïs and Elena’s mother must dodge truck drivers who constantly try to overtake or dominate her on the road – a clear metaphor for patriarchal dominance and men’s attempts to oppress women. Unfortunately, this already foreshadows the tragic ending of the film. When they stop at a rest stop to take a short nap, they become victims of a random act of senseless male violence. Anaïs is the only one who escapes alive, because the stranger instead abducts her into the forest and rapes her.

In a twisted turn of events, Anaïs’s wishes from the beginning of the film come true, only with much more brutality. After emerging from the event and speaking to the police, she insists that she was not raped, reflecting her heartbreaking view of sex and violence. She cannot comprehend that she has been abused – she no longer feels virginal and unwanted; she no longer feels inferior to her sister.

Breillat’s film forces us to think about how male violence is instigated. The dramatic and unexpected act at the end of the film will shock viewers the most, but the filmmaker asks us to consider it in the context of the sexual violence between Elena and Fernando. These scenes may be less violent, but no less abusive. Breillat analyzes the ways in which men can inflict pain on women for their own heinous gain, emphasizing how senseless their behavior can be. Fat girl is a difficult but important film that conveys the everyday horrors of growing up as a woman and the normalization of male abuse and oppression.

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