SAGE FEMME/ THE MIDWIFE
France, 2017, 105 minutes, Colour.
Catherine Frot, Catherine Deneuve, Olivier Gourmet, Quentin Dolmaire, Mylene Demongeot.
Directed by Martin Provost.
It is a pleasure to see two important actresses working together. In 2016 Catherine Frot made a powerful impression as Marguerite, the French equivalent of the off-key singer, Florence Foster Jenkins. Catherine Deneuve, in her early 70s, has been making films, quite prolifically, and receiving top billing since 1964, a French icon.
The title, Sage Femme is the French for Midwife. The emphasis is very female – but there are lines of dialogue in this film to indicate that the name will have to be changed, both in French and English, with men becoming significant in birthing. The son of Catherine Frot’s Claire tells his mother that he is stopping his medical studies but that he intends to work as a midwife.
The film opens with quite a number of births scenes, an opportunity to show Claire and her skills, her ability to deal with mothers giving birth, to encourage, to cajole, to sympathise, and spreading her expertise to the attending nurses. There are other sequences throughout the film enabling us to appreciate Claire’s commitment and professionalism. She is also unhappy at the move to great technological change in care for mothers and birth, moving away from the personalised midwife care.
And Catherine Deneuve? She plays an older woman, Beatrice, who wants to get in contact with Claire’s father with whom she had a relationship decades earlier. This puts a great strain on Claire who is very serious at the best of times. It means going back into her past, her attitude towards her father, her resentment towards Beatrice, her long held the ring that Beatrice had betrayed her.
The main complication is that Beatrice announces that she has terminal cancer, tumours. Claire is very positive in her outlook on illness and recovery and, at first, it is her sense of medical duty that she gives attention to Beatrice. Which is not always easy because Beatrice is one of those people who can never settle down, is always out on the town, is still smoking despite warnings, fond of a drink, and a propensity for gambling. She switches moods in an incident, upset, then over-gracious.
There is one other complication, apart from Claire’s son and his fiancee announcing that she is pregnant. Claire has a garden plot on the outskirts of the city, working with her vegetables, and encounters the son of the manager, Paul (Olivier Gourmet) an international truck driver who befriends Claire, a genial and obliging man, someone who can open up Claire and her capacity for one-to-one affection. There is an exhilarating scene at the end where Claire, Beatrice and Paul go for a country drive in the lorry and Beatrice gets the opportunity to drive.
So, it is a great pleasure to see the two actresses embody these two characters, their interactions, the changing relationship, going back into memories, and the possibilities for some reconciliation and forgiveness. Bringing to birth, so to speak, a new life of relationships.
1. A French drama, French style?
2. The title, a women’s film, characters, the tradition of midwives being women and the comments made about birthing experts and the role of men?
3. Paris, the outlying town, the vegetable gardens? Apartments, hospitals, shops, the gardens? The musical score?
4. The title, Claire seen in a variety of birth sequences? Her sympathies, reassurance of the mothers? The nursing staff, the surgeon? The women, happiness, fears, dangers, Caesarean, emergencies? The father and the camera?
5. Claire, her age, her life? Her love for her son? His engagement to Lucie? Meeting the two, the announcement of the pregnancy, her being upset?
6. Beatrice and her phone call, Claire and Beatrice, agreeing to the meeting, the difficulties of the meeting?
7. The memories of her father, his affair with Beatrice, his relationship to his wife, her pregnancy, not having an abortion? Claire knowing Beatrice when she was in her teens? Beatrice leaving, betrayal? The bitterness of the mother, and for Claire? The slides, father and his swimming, Olympic Championships? The resemblance to his grandson?
8. Beatrice, her Princess name, the truth, revealing it to Claire? Her growing up? Her relationships? Her relationship with Hunt Antoine, the difficulties, finance, his career, her leaving? The shock of discovering that he committed suicide? The effect on her, her moods?
9. Beatrice and the announcement of the cancer, the tumours, discussions with the doctor, Claire and her positive outlook about life, Beatrice never having been unwell before? Smoking, drinking, gambling and winning, the need for Claire, having no one else, living in friends’ apartments, the lease and her having to move out, the gift of the ring to Claire, Claire present after the operation? The doctor talking to Claire, his fears, the tumours deeper? Claire and her presence, taking Beatrice out, shopping, the drives? Taking her in, preparing the room?
10. Beatrice and her need for money, getting Claire to write the checks, the visit to Rolande?
11. Work at the garden, the encounter with Paul, their talking, his being lorry driver, bonding? Simon and Lucie arriving, Simon swimming? The growing relationship with Claire, his coming to the house to help Beatrice when Claire was on duty, Claire’s reaction? The three in the drive in the lorry and Beatrice’s exhilaration?
12. Simon, Lucie, the pregnancy, his giving up his course, wanting to be a midwife? The visit to the house, discovering the slides of his grandfather? Beatrice and her kiss?
13. Beatrice, the drives, getting food, with the local kids, giving them cigarettes, not able to pawn her gold watch? The collapse, the various ups and downs, her decision to leave, the letter for Claire, in her debt? Claire refusing any offer of money from the will?
14. Claire searching for Beatrice, putting on the ring, the letter with the lipstick kiss? The boat in the water and Paul seeing it? The completion of Beatrice’s life? Life in the future for Paul and Claire?
