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Sport de filles (2011 )

Enraged by the sale of the vaulting horse that she'd been promised as hers to ride, Gracieuse, a talented rider, dumps her job at a stable. She starts again from zero by accepting work as a groom at a dressage stud farm adjacent to her father's property. The owner, Joséphine de Silène, exploits with an iron fist the international renown of a German trainer, Franz Mann. This former champion, now cynical and worn out, is sought out by female riders the world over, who fight each other for his knowledge - and for his attention. This microcosm of power and money has no time for Gracieuse, whose only assets are her talent, her fiercely stubborn character, and, most particularly, her determination to succeed. A high tension wire who's ready to stand up to Franz Mann and to face any obstacle, even if it means stepping outside the law, she pursues her sole obsession: to have horse to call her own that she will take to the top. Written by lletaif

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Missed opportunity: nice context * dull (script, execution)

Character development. Any US series is better at that than most French movies. With audiences now educated to the level of quality found in the scripts written for TV shows, how long will there be money wasted on subsidised half-baked movies like that one? Basically 'Sport de Filles' feels like a TV-movie of the 80s. The title is pretty bad (it suggests nothing close to an interesting/intriguing premise), the main character is dull dull dull and the supporting cast is made of flimsy types, except for Bruno Ganz who does a good job with the only solid property of the lot. The story is dully linear without the glimmer of a sense of rhythm. Dialogue is on the nose and, worst of all, the music is bad and its mixing to cap longer sequences only serves to make the continuity painfully duller.

The only good point, beyond Bruno Ganz's scenes (most notably facing his English-American horse-love-interest) is that you can feel what is the passion for horses. Since it's the only redeeming point in the whole venture it's pretty clear this was the selling point. Sad to say it doesn't take much to green-light a euro co-production: a vaguely original idea is all it takes. Austerity and the confidence fairy, again?

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