A Woman's Life

Normandy, 1819. Upon completing her studies in a convent, Jeanne ,18, returns home to her family’s castle. She marries a local aristocrat, but over the next three decades is faced with painful realizations: her parents turn old and ill, her husband reveals himself as treacherous and miserly, and her only son is a pathological spender who rids her of all her possessions. This new film from Stéphane Brizé, which won the International Film Critics Award at Venice, is a beautiful, touching adaptation of Maupassant’s first novel. Brizé casts the delightful Judith Chemla in the lead role, applies a nearly-square screen ratio and works like an impressionist painter, weaving several short scenes into an exceptionally rich and rewarding film.