‘A Radiant Girl’ Review: A Promising Directorial Debut From French Actor Sandrine Kiberlain
variety.comCatherine Bray “A Radiant Girl” is set in Paris in 1942, but you’d hardly know it from spending time with the film’s 19-year-old protagonist, Irene (Rebecca Marder) — at least not to begin with.
Irene is, as the title suggests, a lovely young woman, practically vibrating with joie de vivre. An aspiring actor, she spends her days rehearsing for the entrance exam to the prestigious Paris Conservatory, which leaves her just about enough time to argue charmingly but lovingly with her tight-knit French-Jewish family, and tentatively pursue romance with a dishy young doctor (in one amusing scene, she attempts to fail an eye test in order to have an excuse to see him again).
In a nutshell, Irene is somebody thoroughly determined to live every moment to its fullest. These kinds of bright-eyed lead characters, whose defining trait is their insistent need to seize each and every single day in a keen and vice-like grip, are a long-standing staple of indie film.
Where exactly they land on the spectrum from endearing to annoying, depends to an enormous degree on both the actor who plays them and the context in which their zesty enthusiasm for life plays out.
Read more on variety.com