THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – MUST SEE
First feature film by Cécile Ducrocq, A woman of the world takes possession of a territory that we know well, that of a contemporary French-speaking naturalism that is both documented and committed. A genre that will have found its artistic assumption in the work of the Dardenne brothers, with the unforgettable Rosetta (1999) – camera riveted on a declassified heroine struggling body and soul to get out. Louise Wimmer (2012), by Cyril Mennegun, or Party girl (2014), by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis, were, on the French side, remarkable extensions. Royal path in the 1990s, this approach, undoubtedly worn out by epigones who transformed it into a formula, has since become somewhat blunt.
It is in the visible wake of the films cited that is located A woman of the world, like them, moreover, located in the east of France. Laure Calamy plays a prostitute as in The Counter-alley (2014), the director’s previous short film, awarded a César in 2016. The film begins in a brothel in Strasbourg: “Welcome, you can put your things there. Thirty-five euros, I remove the top, 60 euros, one position. “ The whole filmed as a rather banal affair between the saleswoman of her own charms and the ordinary customer, not without gentleness but with the distance and the professionalism which befits. Otherwise her name is Marie. She is pretty. She is alone. And she trains with her teenage son, Adrien, rebellious mute, who has just been fired from the establishment where he was preparing a BTS in cook.
As well A woman of the world is not a film about prostitution, which is never more than a means of not flowing, but on the sacrifice of a mother for the well-being and education of her son, the only end considered by the heroine, the total fight of her life. So she decides to enroll him in a reputable cooking school, whatever the cost. And it will cost him dearly since the price charged exceeds his financial capacities.
Infernal circle
Here we have the neorealist ferment of an intrigue that also cuts through the cogs of our society. How can you pay your child for a good education when you don’t earn enough for a living? Relatives have no money either. The bank refuses to lend to prostitutes. The guidance counselor recommends a siding. The private school will not grant any credit whatsoever.
It remains to sell, even more, to extract the necessary sum within the time limit. Nothing less than 9,000 euros. The dramaturgical spring of the film is built on this challenge. Marie will do everything to get him up. Multiply the passes, give up his independence, alienate himself in a cross-border brothel in Germany and submit to the iron law of savage competition between girls, the law of the youngest who have no other choice but to go as far as possible, the twisted blows, the sadistic clients, the ironwork of a pimp mother who is like the chief warrant officer.
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