The full page review in September's Sight and Sound Magazine was enough to take me to Berkhamsted and the Rex Cinema. Based on the 1934 play Mon crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, it is the kind of farce in which the French specialise. Although it does start with someone being shot. The suspect is beautiful blonde Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) who lives poorly in a tiny Paris apartment with budding lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder). Her trial is a farce as the two women turn it into a story about the oppression of women.
Director Francois Ozon has adapted the book with Phillipe Piazzo. It is fast and clever. There are lots of laughs to be had along the way. And who should turn up over half way through but the wonderful Isabelle Huppert as the faded silent movie star Odette Chaumette. The men are far less sympathetic. From the lawyers, to the judge, the boyfriend, his father and an industrialist. It's all great fun. The scenery from the 1930's is wonderful, as are the costumes and cars. I loved it.
There is one very subtle idea of a one way relationship. Look at the lawyer Pauline's eyes as she looks up at Madeleine in the dock. Unrequited love that is never explained. Thank goodness.
Ginette Vicendeau in Sight and Sound Magazine November 2024: marries brilliant entertainment with dubious ideology.
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