Sage femme (2017)
Directed by Martin Provost

Film Review

In this modern take on the well-known fable of the ant and the grasshopper, director Martin Provost continues his series of personal tributes to women rising above the adversities of life.  Sage femme is something of a comedown after his widely acclaimed biographical portraits Séraphine (2009) and Violette (2013), and sees Provost drift lazily into more soapy territory, with French cinema's two most famous Catherines - Frot and Deneuve - struggling to connect within a fumbling drama that is for the most part breathtakingly banal.  Provost wanted to make the film to show his gratitude to the midwifery (sage-femme) profession to which he literally owes his life, but what prompted his extraordinarily gifted lead actresses to get involved, when there are presumably far better things they can be doing with their time, is anyone's guess.

'Sage femme' (without the hyphen) translates as 'well-behaved woman', and this is exactly what Frot delivers in one of her dullest screen portrayals yet (it's not quite a still birth).  Too good to be true, the self-sacrificing living saint she plays so earnestly rarely comes across as convincing, or even sympathetic, and it is Deneuve who has all the fun, monopolising our emotions as the over-the-hill me-me-me bitch who, quite frankly, doesn't give a damn.  The over-accented writing, which repeatedly stresses Frot's innate goodness and Deneuve's pathological monomania, does little for the film's credibility and hamfistedly nails down the narrative to a straight-line trajectory that is far too shallow and predictable.  Unlike the writing and direction, which are both well below the standard of Provost's previous films, the acting is hard to fault, with Deneuve on especially fine form, revelling in the kind of 'bad girl' role that no veteran diva can resist (you can imagine Bette Davis slaughtering her rivals by the dozen to get roles like this in her day).

No doubt about it - this is Deneuve's film.  Frot's portrayal, by comparison, is industrial-strength soporific at its most potent, guaranteed to induce sleep (or terminal catalepsy) within ten minutes.  This is all down to the script, which makes her character the dullest, most lamentable specimen of archetype imaginable.  Only in a few scenes - notably those with Olivier Gourmet and Quentin Dolmaire (fine choices for the parts of Frot's boyfriend and wayward son, both actors bringing a stiff shot of reality into the lacklustre proceedings) - that a more rounded individual begins to become apparent.  In her scenes with Deneuve, alas, Frot is almost totally eclipsed - her function appears to be merely that of a benchmark against which the other character's failings are to be measured.  Despite the pedigree of the actors, the way in which the unlikely relationship develops between the endlessly taking Béatrice and constantly giving Claire rarely, if ever rings true.  Sage femme is feel-good soap at its most contrived and mechanical, but Deneuve's ballsy presence at least gives it a touch of class.

Film Synopsis

Claire lives and works in a district of Yvelines on the outskirts of Paris.  A seriously minded middle-aged woman, she is committed to her work as a hardworking mid-wife in a small maternity hospital and lives alone with her nearly grown-up son, Simon, whom she has had to bring up single-handedly.  Her concerns over the impending forced closure of her hospital are exacerbated by her son's decision to abandon his studies and leave home.  It is at this taxing moment that Béatrice suddenly thrusts her way back into Claire's life.  Thirty years have elapsed since the women last met.  Béatrice was the mistress of Claire's father, and when she suddenly walked out of his life for no reason he committed suicide not long afterwards.  Claire has never forgiven her for this and is in no mood to start any kind of relationship with her.  Whereas the younger woman has lived her life in the service of others, Béatrice has lived only for herself, a selfish and egoistical loafer.  Now, it seems, Béatrice needs Claire's help after she has been diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer.  Claire have every reason to spurn the self-absorbed 70-year-old but her good nature gets the better of her.  It turns out that both women need each other as they arrive at an important crossroads in their lives...