52 Films by Women Vol 10. 43. FRENCH GIRLS (Director: Hyun Lee)

 

Pictured: Catching your headshot. Model Mia (real-life model Mia Kidis) sees herself on a billboard in a scene from the micro-budget Sydney-set drama, 'French Girls', written and directed by Hyun Lee. Still courtesy of Melbourne International Film Festival

Some people are great at getting free stuff. Others name their cat ‘Potato’. The micro-budget Australian film, French Girls, written and directed by Hyun Lee, shows us both kinds of people. This is not to put them in opposition. There are other types of people, who would (say) loan you a loaded gun, but these people are few in number. The people who get free stuff look like they don’t need it. That’s the secret. Those who donate want to impress them, to remain in their circle. On some level, people want to have attractive friends and to reward them. This is a symptom of our messed-up set of priorities.

Lee’s film, apparently made for Aus $28,000 – or 28 bucks since the thousand is silent – is narrated by a gossipy, semi-interested woman (Anya Beyersdorf). I’m not a fan of films that use voiceover as a crutch, but it’s a cheap way to tie together random footage and a means of getting the audience not to work too hard. In this film, no one works too hard, so spread the love. Lee points her camera up at the sun which we see through leaves from two adjoining trees. She shows us a poster mounted high at the end of a street advertising ‘French Girl’. It is a beauty campaign, funded by Japan, shot in Australia featuring zero French models. To be a French model, the voiceover tells us, ‘you have to have je ne sais quoi’. That means, ‘I don’t know’, the voiceover adds, making audiences who don’t know French feel good about themselves. The model is shown being photographed by police. She has a scratch on her right cheek. Apparently, she shot a guy. She has a story that should be turned into a movie, the voiceover suggests. Otherwise, why are we here?

The model is Mia (Mia Kidis), who when we first meet her is in construction, using a jack hammer to break up a paving stone. Mia isn’t afraid of hard work, but if she had a choice. Her life changes when she is spotted by Sky (Georgia Godworth), a former model who runs an agency. She compliments Mia and leaves her card.  Mia goes to her office and is immediately signed up. Sky, the voiceover tells us, worked for an unethical agency that made her bulimic. She runs her agency ethically. Models can have tattoos. They don’t have to take jobs that promote fast fashion or swimwear. ‘We want you to be yourself,’ she insists, repeating the sentiment again and again. ‘Yourself,’ the film ponders, ‘What does that even mean?’ One imponderable is that if you want to quit, you must give thirty days’ notice.

Pictured: Watching Dreyer's Joan of Arc on TV (seemingly on repeat), Sydney-based glamour model Mia (Mia Kidis) chills with a donut and potato chips in writer-director Hyun Lee's droll drama, 'French Girls'. Still courtesy of Melbourne International Film Festival

Having posed for a polaroid, later described as not very flattering, Mia is booked for a number of shoots. Meanwhile, her slacker boyfriend, Eljay (Luca Blasonato) teams up with two guys to produce a replica of a designer jacket, which can be sold for Aus 10k (money, not a road race). He even produces a certificate of authenticity from an auction house, adding fake signatures. What could go wrong? Well, selling it to a redeemed hoodlum who wants to give the jacket as a present, that’s for sure. The new owner spots a fake instantly.

Before calamity strikes, Mia and Eljay break up. Mia presents herself at the house of another model, who allows her to stay. She doesn’t pay rent (what I said about free stuff). Her only obligation is to feed the cat. Somehow, being photogenic and in paid employment means you are trustworthy.

‘90% of modelling is waiting’, the voiceover tells us. You wait for the job. You wait before the shoot starts or before you walk down a catwalk in a sophisticated way. I don’t know what sophisticated walking is, but I wager it doesn’t prevent plantar fasciitis.  This observation hangs in the air. We wait to find out if Mia actually shot someone. It’s called suspense.

Eljay wrote his return address on the packaging. The hoodlum tracks him down and makes his feelings known. He tells Eljay to repay the 10k otherwise he and his girlfriend (as seen on social media) will get it. Coincidentally, Mia earned 10k ‘for nothing’. That is, she was paid 3k for a shoot and received a 10k bonus if she was used in a campaign. Technically, it’s not ‘for nothing’. Although they have broken up, Mia gives him the money. Eljay decamps to Melbourne. It isn’t clear whether the hoodlum has been paid.

Nevertheless, one of Mia’s friends loans her a gun for protection. We know it will be used at some point, because ‘hello Ibsen’. We predict it will involve a confrontation with said hoodlum.

Pictured: All you need for a movie is an angle-poise lamp, a woman and a gun. Glamour model Mia (Mia Kidis) does the pointing in Australian writer-director Hyun Lee's feature debut, 'French Girls'. Still courtesy of Melbourne International Film Festival

Lee never makes Mia her principal viewpoint character. We aren’t encouraged to identify with her at all. We see her at various bookings, including the ‘French Girl’ shoot, that involves four models, three women and one man. These models aren’t super competitive or ‘catty’; Lee makes a point of showing Mia being supported. But we have no idea if she is ‘being herself’. Modelling appears to be something to do between eating donuts.

Mia is casual and randomly curious. The model with whom she shares an apartment dates a photographer who is working abroad. He has a collection of video and still cameras. Mia borrows a camcorder and starts recording stuff. Suddenly remembering something, she leaves the camera behind on a street bench. A guy picks it up and looks at the footage.

Mia also helps herself to her friend’s grey face pack. She is scolded. ‘It’s just a little bit,’ Mia protests. The woman is mounting her mobile phone next to a mirror lighting rig. She ‘has to work’.

You might draw comparisons between Lee’s film and the work of Sean Baker (of Anora, Tangerine and The Florida Project fame). Baker is interested in celebrating the agency of those who survive on the margins. Lee is more restrained. Her characters drift and barely express pleasure. Eljay might talk about eating foie gras, his way of living large after selling the jacket. But it’s a conceptual pleasure, to have something out of reach.

The gun scene is genuinely surprising. It follows Mia giving her notice but having to take a booking. The designer struggles to realise his concept, which involves the duality of the ‘Madonna and whore’ and renaissance art. After dressing and redressing Mia, he decides that she should walk the catwalk completely naked. Mia is silent. Models don’t offer opinions. She finally leaves the studio at 2:00am. She misses a booking the next day, having taken a bunch of pills. Then the incident occurs.

Nash Edgerton executive produced the film and cameos as a cop. Budget limitations are apparent. He is supposed to be interviewing her but no recording devices are present. The cop gives Mia a bottle of water. She continues to say nothing.

One of her ex-colleagues in construction expresses no surprise that she was arrested by the way she used the jack hammer. There is a coda. Mia sits on a bench. A woman asks, ‘where do I know you from?’ Mia doesn’t help her. It’s the campaign.

In some early scenes, Lee draws attention to the number of cameras that are active in everyday life, in particular when shopping. However, Lee doesn’t discuss how those images are used and the power of avoiding being photographed. Running for 83 minutes, French Girls is a modest diversion, a wafer of a movie, low calorie and little fat.

Reviewed at Screen Five Picturehouse Central, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, Saturday 10 October 2026, 09:45am, London Film Festival Press & Industry Screening