Fat Girl · reception & legacy
2001 · Catherine Breillat
How Fat Girl has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Scandalous on arrival in 2001 — it was even banned outright in Ontario before the decision was reversed on appeal — it has since been canonised by Criterion and is now widely treated as Breillat's masterpiece.
What's debated
The ending: film fans still argue over whether its infamous final swerve is a devastating masterstroke or a cheap provocation that betrays the film before it.
Its footprint
A load-bearing title of the so-called New French Extremity, it's the Breillat film people are dared to watch — and the blunt English retitling of 'À ma sœur!' as 'Fat Girl' is itself a perennial talking point.
Where it stands
Criterion-approved and a fixture of provocative-cinema and best-of-2001 lists, it's the consensus entry point into Breillat's filmography — beloved, feared, and endlessly recommended with a warning attached.