This makes for quite a gruelling, testing drama, that's carried by an impressive, heartfelt performance from Chemla, who confidently runs the gamut from light, carefree youth to the careworn figure of bitterly disillusioned middle age.
Complex, poised and beguilingly earthy. Stephane Brizé’s decade-spanning epic is a sensitively performed, memorably fragmentary look at one woman undone by the feckless men in her life.
It doesn’t make for cheerful viewing but, in its own downbeat way, A Woman’s Life makes absorbing filmmaking.
A respectful adaptation, yet one that fails to translate the intensity of Maupassant’s writing.
Stéphane Brizé’s period drama trots along like a reliable chestnut mare, tugging steadily behind it the tale of a sensitive heiress who marries a rotter.
The saving grace is an excellent performance from Chemla as she captures Jeanne's journey from carefree youth to careworn middle-age.
This atmospheric film adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel explores the bleak lot of an heiress in 19th-century France.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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