FOR A WOMAN / Pour une femme

 

Los Angeles Premiere • Drama • France, 2013

DCP • 2.35 • Digital • Color • 110 min

 

Directed by: Diane Kurys

Written by: Diane Kurys

Cinematography: Gilles Henry

Film Editing: Sylvie Gadmer

Original Score: Armand Amar

Produced by: Alexandre Arcady, Diane Kurys (Alexandre Films), Ronan Mouchebœuf

Coproduced by: France 3 Cinéma, Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, New Light Films, Rise Films

Cast: Benoît Magimel (Michel), Mélanie Thierry (Léna), Nicolas Duvauchelle (Jean)

International Sales: EuropaCorp

U.S. Distributor: Film Movement

U.S. release date: May 2, 2014

 

This visually elegant mix of suspense and melodrama draws from the director’s own family story. Anne, a young novelist, discovers a mysterious stranger in a photo amongst her recently deceased mother’s things, and sets out to discover the man’s identity, unearthing a family secret kept quiet for 30 years. The story begins in the 1980s but comes to life in postwar France. Anne’s idealistic father Michel is just settling into his life with his young child and his newlywed Léna, whom he met in a concentration camp. But the fragility of Michel’s relationship is exposed when his intriguing and secretive brother Jean, long thought to be lost in the war, shows up looking for a place to stay. Back in 1980, as the older Michel grows increasingly ill, Anne is desperate to learn why he refuses to speak about his brother, and worries that she may never know why Jean haunts the family history like a ghost.

 

Some of writer/director Diane Kurys’s best works have been period films, including her first feature, Peppermint Soda (1977), and her César-nominated At First Sight (1983). Her affinity for the past stems partly from her belief that period films stand the test of time better than contemporary films. Kurys’s early work established her reputation for convincing and sometimes shocking depictions of romantic love from a female perspective.  For A Woman, ker twelfth feature, is a semi-autobiographical story that revisits Kurys’s mother, previously portrayed by Isabelle Huppert in Entre Nous (1983, nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar) and Nathalie Baye in C'est La Vie (1990). This latest film, in which her father becomes the central figure, constitutes the last chapter of Kurys’s family origin story. She enjoyed early success as an actress, notably in Fellini’s Cassanova (1976). Her 1987 film, A Man In Love, was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

 

 “Beautifully crafted historical melodrama.”

 - Boyd van Hoeij HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

 

“Magimel is superb as the husband increasingly out of step with the modern world.”

- Judith Prescott FRENCH CINEMA REVIEW