There’s a stereotype that the French love their women, but it certainly seems evident when you look at le cinéma français. Two grandes dames and two bright young things star in three of this year’s female-centred offerings in the French Film Festival Aotearoa, and even better, the later-life actresses show age is no impediment to powerhouse performances – and looking glamorous with it.
Interestingly, there are thematic, plot and casting similarities across this year’s line-up, too.
The President’s Wife and The Sitting Duck are depictions of prominent real-life women in the political sphere who are victims of misogyny and sexism.
In the imagined biopic, The President’s Wife, the timeless Catherine Deneuve is sensational as Bernadette, perpetually sidelined wife of former French president Jacques Chirac. While the “loosely based on” film doesn’t pretend to be gospel and verse, debut feature director Léa Domenach had plenty of publicly available source material from which to carve this clever, often galling and frequently hilarious story of rebellion and revenge.
Bernadette and Jacques met as students of politics and while Monsieur Chirac went on to lead the republic, Madame never faltered in her efforts to improve life for the people of France. Deneuve (now a stunning 80) plays her as a tenaciously positive wife even as Chirac’s patronising team – including their own daughter, Claude – tell the First Lady how to behave, criticise her trademark Chanel suits and insist she puts her husband’s needs first.
What a joy, then, to watch the charismatic Bernadette push her own agenda and raise her own profile as she beetles about the country in her little red Peugeot. The President’s Wife is an enormously enjoyable, storming feminist right of reply.
Not a year goes by without another new flick featuring the inimitable 71-year-old Isabelle Huppert. (A cursory count indicates Huppert has appeared in no fewer than 78 films in the past 24 years alone.) Star of gritty arthouse films The Piano Teacher and Elle, she has never been one to shy away from uncomfortable content, and The Sitting Duck is at its most compelling when confronting a horrific crime.
Huppert plays real-life trade unionist Maureen Kearney, who worked tirelessly to uncover and then blow the whistle on a secret contract signed between China and the French multinational company Areva, whose employees she represented.
Subjected to in-house intimidation by the finger-pointing male CEO, and anonymous death threats and abuse, after a shocking assault Kearney was dragged through a despicable legal system.
As usual, Huppert handles the ghastly men and outrageous treatment with a steely stare, and though the melodramatic soundtrack and unbelievably rude characters suggest a film trying too hard to be Erin Brockovich (it’s not), Kearney’s ordeal is truly appalling and a story worth getting angry about.
It’s a relief, then, to sit back and be swept up in the myriad delights of 1930s-set, Francois Ozon-directed, screwball comedy The Crime is Mine.
An aspiring actress (Nadia Tereszkiewicz, also starring in this festival’s Rosalie) and her aspiring lawyer roommate (Simone Veil’s Rebecca Marder) get caught up in a murder they didn’t commit but decide to confess to anyway in this breathtakingly original, funny and fast-paced crime caper.
The twisty plot hurtles along with witty dialogue, all-round marvellous performances (especially Fabrice Luchini’s haughty investigating judge and a multi-scene-stealing turn by the ubiquitous Huppert – who is also starring in Sidonie in Japan) and courtroom drama reminiscent of Anatomy of a Fall’s inquisitorial system but handled with a much sillier touch.
The girls are charming and clever, the boorish men get their comeuppance, and there’s not a feel-bad moment in the whole script. The Crime is Mine is a wonderful palate cleanser after the tougher tales, and yet another sign that the French sure know how to make movies.
Ratings out of 5:
The President’s Wife: ★★★★
The Sitting Duck: ★★★
The Crime is Mine: ★★★★
The French Film Festival Aotearoa 2024 runs in selected cinemas nationwide throughout June.
