From a family film rife with a raging and ultimately disarming energy, filmmaker Émilie Brisavoine has successfully chiseled away an excellent portrait of an impulsive teenager caught in the middle of a visceral and overpowering inter-generational narrative.

A kaleidoscopic film where home movies, personal diaries and behavioural chronicles approach the limits of reality TV, Oh la la Pauline draws the curtain back on a fascinating experience of artisanal film, much like Jonathan Caouette’s illustrious Tarnation.

Between its battlegrounds and chaotic collective psychoanalysis, Oh la la Pauline is also worth a watch for the unlikely theatricality of its subjects, each hilarious, moving or exasperating in turns.

Terence Chotard
Filmmaker

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