Breathe
**** out of *****
Directed by Melanie Laurent
Starring: Josephine Japy, Lou de Laage, Isabelle Carre, Radivoje Bukvic, and Claire Keim
Theatrical Release Date: September 11, 2015
French Subtitles

A few minutes into director Melanie Laurent‘s second feature film (we know her best from her role as the blonde bombshell in Inglourious Basterds), Breathe, a French classroom setting is revealed to us and a discussion is ongoing about the potential ramifications of passion. One high school students’ observation can be seen as a portent: “Passion is harmful when it becomes obsessive.” This is foreshadowing at its most glaring, but even when we think we know the suspected trajectory of Ms. Laurent’s new film she quickly lays rest to our expectations and sets in motion a new path we hardly anticipate.