North American Premiere
Valérie Donzelli’s film begins as a sunny romance and slowly, subtly becomes a defiant feminist drama. When Blanche (Virginie Efira) meets Greg (Melvil Poupaud) at a seaside party, she’s quickly won over by his confidence and charm. Soon she’s pregnant by him, and the two make a decision to become life partners. Eventually, Greg reveals himself to be jealous, possessive, and controlling, and when Blanche seeks comfort outside the marriage, things escalate further.
Efira excels in a dual role (playing both Blanche and her twin sister), and as Greg, Poupaud performs the transition from sweet seducer to fearsome abuser with chilling believability. Donzelli laces the drama with brief, impressionistic images, and she shows the same skill for evoking beauty in her heroine: Blanche’s visage, whether showing pain, pleasure, or things in between, is radiantly expressive.
First and foremost a feminist work of truth… charts with formidable, novelistic acuity the trajectory of a woman falling under the control of a man.
Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
Virginie Efira, Melvil Poupaud, Dominique Reymond, Romane Bohringer, Virginie Ledonyen
France
2023
Showcase
In French with English subtitles
Domestic Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Alice Girard & Edouard Weil
Screenwriter
Valérie Donzelli
Cinematography
Laurent Tangy
Editor
Pauline Gaillard
Production Design
Gaëlle Usandivaras
Original Music
Gabriel Yared
Director
Valérie Donzelli
Valérie Donzelli, born March 2, 1973, is a French actress, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Despite starting in architecture, her passion shifted to acting. Partnering with Jérémie Elkaïm, they pursued creative ventures together. Donzelli gained fame through TV’s Clara Sheller before her directorial debut, The Queen of Hearts (2008). Declaration of War (2011) drew from her experience when her son battled cancer. A multifaceted artist, she remains a poignant force in French cinema.
Filmography: The Queen of Hearts (2008); Declaration of War (2011); Hand in Hand (2012); Notre Dame (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Get Out
Guess who's coming to dinner? Daniel Kaluuya is the Black boyfriend justifiably anxious about meeting his white girlfriend's folks for the first time in Jordan Peele's satiric modern horror classic, one of a series curated by our VIFF+ Premium members.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
The Haunting
Directed by Robert Wise in 1963, The Haunting is a classic exercise in the suggestive power of cinema, adapted from Shirley Jackson's 1959 best-seller, The Haunting of Hill House, a provocative blend of supernatural and psychological horror.
A. Rimbaud
Patrick Wang (The Bread Factory) presents the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud in this staggeringly adventurous and deeply considered movie, a three-hour, one-man show quite unlike anything we have seen before. "Poetic, audacious and singular."