Midwife: did the director film real deliveries?

Released in cinemas in 2017, the movie called Midwifeworn by Catherine Frot and Catherine Deneuve, will be broadcast Sunday, September 25, 2022, from 9:05 p.m. on France 2. Realized by Martin Provost, this feature film features the character of Claire, a 49-year-old woman embodied on screen by Catherine Frot. Living alone, she practices the profession of midwife in a maternity hospital whose closure is scheduled. Beatrice, interpreted by Catherine Deneuvewas the mistress of her father, who had committed suicide some time after the sudden departure of the latter. After 30 years of silence, the two women will meet again.

Despite her age and precarious health, Béatrice is whimsical and totally immature. Claire, meanwhile, leads a tidy life as a good Samaritan between her hospital and her apartment in Mantes-la-Jolie. She has a son, Simon, who is studying medicine, together with his pregnant girlfriend. Claire begins to form an affair with Paul, a fifty-something trucker. Evicted from the apartment where she was staying, the extravagant Béatrice moves in with Claire. For the anecdote, we can see real deliveries in which Catherine Frot really participated in this feature film. “In the movies, too often, the babies who are born are huge and too healthy, it rings very false! I wanted to film life in real life, the very essence of life, what we have all been through and not its more or less watered down representation.“said Martin Provost.

Midwife: 6 births were filmed live

“For it, we had to shoot these scenes in Belgium because French law does not allow us to shoot with babies under three months old. It was a long and complex job: we had to find women who had just become pregnant and who agreed to have their childbirth filmed six months later, to find maternity wards that allowed us to do so. Catherine Frot has undergone training. She attended births prior to filming, participated in them“, added the director. In total, 6 births were filmed live.

“The idea of ​​this work, as moving as it is, was not insignificant. I finally accepted because I knew that it was an integral part of the project that Martin proposed to me. So I proceeded step by step. I first asked to attend births in order to know if I could possibly have appropriate gestures. I realized that all of this was ultimately very natural, very normal. I then took lessons with a former midwife who made me rehearse on mannequins“, underlined Catherine Frot.

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