La Lectrice (1988)
Directed by Michel Deville

Film Review

This is a film which is not just about the pleasure of reading but also about the power it has to alter our perception of the world, offering us new experiences which can be as profound as anything in real life.  It is a bizarre thing to say, but watching this film is strangely like reading a book.  The way in which the film draws its viewer into its subject is as subtle and effective as if it were a well written novel.

One peculiarity of the film is the way in which the viewer is led to identify him or herself with the reader, Constantine, who identifies herself with the reader Marie, who, in turn, identifies herself with her clients.  This Russian doll nesting of world within worlds provides an unsettlingly unfamiliar yet ultimately pleasurable cinematic experience.

Michel Deville's quirky brand of comedy is helped along with a captivating performance from Miou-Miou, providing some moments of genuine hilarity.  There are some splendid contributions from Patrick Chesnais and veteran actress Maria Casarès, whose O.T.T. performances provide a perfect foil to Miou-Miou's subtle yet far from innocent portrayal of Marie.

Film Synopsis

Jean listens attentively as his attractive girlfriend Constance reads to him a book about a young woman, Marie, whose greatest passion is reading.  Marie's love of the printed word leads her to take up a career as a professional book reader, and she has no shortage of clients after she has placed an ad in the newspaper.  Her first customer is Éric, a young man who is confined to a wheelchair.  Marie's reading of Guy de Maupassant and Baudelaire fires the young man's erotic fantasies and reawakens his zest for living.  Then there is the strange old widow, the former wife of a Hungarian general, who thrives on Russian literature, in particular Marx and Tolstoy.  With Marie's help, a little girl named Coralie is transported to join Alice in her adventures in Wonderland and an old magistrate gets his pornographic kicks from Sade's more lubricious passages.  Much as Marie enjoys her work, it inevitably brings her into conflict with her jealous boyfriend Pierre and a suspicious police officer, neither of whom understand the nature of the service she is providing.  Having finished reading her book, Constance makes up her mind to follow Marie's example...