Set Me Free

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Set Me Free

1999,

1h 34m,

Drama

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Watchlist

81%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

77%

100+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

81%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

In the 1960s, Hanna (Karine Vanasse), a teen girl with a troubled home life, finds solace in films, especially those starring actress Anna Karina, who reminds her of her schoolteacher (Nancy Huston). Hanna's father (Miki Manojlovic) is an unhappy poet, her mother (Pascale Bussières) is exhausted from work and their marriage is failing. Hanna finds support in her brother (Alexandre Merineau) and in Laura (Charlotte Christeler), a girl at school to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted.

Lou Lumenick

New York Post

Jan 1, 2000

3/4

Tells its story so effectively through pictures it's barely necessary to read the subtitles.

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Jan 1, 2000

3/4

In some of its details, it resembles Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows.

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Jan 1, 2000

4.5/5

The performances in Set Me Free are all gentle, lovely creations that are of a piece with the film's humanistic touch.

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Dennis Lim

Out Magazine

May 24, 2022

Vanasse gives a performance of unaffected grace, and Pool reveals a keen eye for the formative moments of adolescence.

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B. Ruby Rich

San Francisco Bay Guardian

Feb 26, 2020

Pool has reached a new level entirely as writer-director of deeply emotional yet lightly humorous storytelling. Best of all, she's taken a genre known for its softness, the coming-of-age film, and put some bite into it.

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Felicia Feaster

Creative Loafing

Jan 29, 2020

Tinctured with a feminist perspective, Set Me Free tends to see the world as a series of shiny traps set for young girls, a difficult path to adulthood made worse without a capable female role model.

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Léa Pool

Director

Karine Vanasse

Hanna

Alexandre Merineau

Paul, frère de Hanna

Pascale Bussières

Mère de Hanna

Miki Manojlovic

Père de Hanna

Charlotte Christeler

Laura

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Synopsis

In the 1960s, Hanna (Karine Vanasse), a teen girl with a troubled home life, finds solace in films, especially those starring actress Anna Karina, who reminds her of her schoolteacher (Nancy Huston). Hanna's father (Miki Manojlovic) is an unhappy poet, her mother (Pascale Bussières) is exhausted from work and their marriage is failing. Hanna finds support in her brother (Alexandre Merineau) and in Laura (Charlotte Christeler), a girl at school to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted.

Director: Léa Pool
Producer: Lorraine Richard, Carole Scotta, Alfi Sinniger
Screenwriter: Nancy Huston, Léa Pool, Isabelle Raynault
Distributor: Merchant-Ivory Productions [us], Artistic License
Production Co: Catpics AG, Cité-Amérique, Haut et Court
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 12, 1999, Original
Box Office (Gross USA): $73.4K
Runtime: 1h 34m

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