Spring Blossom

Spring Blossom
France | 2020 | 73’ | Colour | French | English subtitle | Group: B
Director: Suzanne Lindon

An intense evocation of teenage infatuation, Spring Blossom is all the more effective because it was written by a 15 year-old girl – director and star Suzanne Lindon (daughter of Vincent), who eventually made this film at the age of 20. This is no gauzy recollection but an immediate glimpse of intense longing, that feeling of unease in your own skin, and wanting more from life but not knowing what that might be. Suzanne (Lindon) is 16 and uninterested in people of her own age: she’s looking to satisfy some deeper emotions, find a meaning to the adulthood she is fast approaching. When her eyes lock on older actor Raphael (Arnaud Valois), it seems she may have found a similar soul. Charming and heartfelt, especially when it comes to moments of choreography, Spring Blossom showcases a budding new talent in Lindon, both in front and behind the camera.

FIONNUALA HALLIGAN

Suzanne is 16. She is bored with people of her age. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theatre. There, she meets an older man, and becomes obsessed with him. Despite their age difference, they find in each other an answer to their ennui and fall in love. But Suzanne is afraid she’s missing out on life – that life of a 16-year-old, which she is struggling so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers.

Suzanne Lindon was born on April 13 2000 in Paris, France, and is just is 20 years old. In 2015, she enrolled at the prestigious French high school Henri IV, and at the same time began writing Spring Blossom. Suzanne graduated high school with honors in 2018, and decided to take a one year preparatory course in sketching before joining l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs of Paris. In 2019, the summer of her 19th birthday, she started preparing her first feature film which was selected for the Cannes label 2020 and played in Toronto and San Sebastian.