The awakening of sexual desire, and with it the craving to love and be loved in return, is a time fraught with peril, in which the possibilities for emotional manipulation abound—all of which is described with tactile immediacy and disarming tenderness in Australian Cate Shortland’s modern coming-of-age classic, 2004’s Somersault. To accompany our run of Shortland’s film, Metrograph presents a complementary selection of works that likewise negotiate the minefield that is a young woman’s experience of budding erotic curiosity and romantic yearning, as seen through the eyes of Catherine Breillat, Maurice Pialat, Lucrecia Martel, Stanley Kubrick, and Céline Sciamma. The wincing pain of recognition may be difficult to bear at times but, we assure you, ultimately worthwhile.
