MADAME CLAUDE
France, 2021, 112 minutes, Colour.
Karole Rocher, Garance Marillier, Roschdy Zem, Lia O' Prey.
Directed by Sylvie Verheyde.
This portrait of Fernande Grundet, Madame Claude, is designed for a French audience. Other audiences will not be familiar with the character, the political background of 1968, a particular case of murder and its investigation. And, the screenplay, while alluding to these elements, does not give sufficient information and background for the non-French audience to appreciate what is going on.
This is a portrait rather than a biography of Madame Claude, her voice-over, explaining her family origins (later including sexual assault when a child by an uncle), suggestions of her work in the resistance during World War II, her determination to make something of herself, setting up an escort business, sometimes with 300 girls, and extensive clientele including politicians.
The particular period for the film is 1968, the background of Georges Pompidou as president, the stardom of a land along, the story of his bodyguard and his being murdered. There were investigations, and imprisonment for a short time of an associate of Dell and, his release and the case never having been solved.
Carol Roche a is madame Claude, her having been previously dramatised in the 1977 film, directed by Just Jaeckin (Emmanuelle) with Françoise Fabian, the title also Madame Claude.
The film gives a lot of attention to the to the socials, the girls, the guests, the drinking… But the main attention is given to a young woman who wants to be a prostitute, Sidney (Garrance Marillier, star of the horror films by Julie Ducorneau, Raw, Tatine), who tends to be an unsympathetic screen presence, rebelling against her politician father who had assaulted her when she was young, wanting to be independent yet opting for high-class prostitution with Madame Claude. She is ambiguous throughout the film, in a relationship with Claude, working as a prostitute, later having a boyfriend, wanting to murder her father, later taking him to court.
In the background of the narrative are members of the police force, friends of Claude, giving her warning about suspicions, one of her girls in a photo linked with the to long bodyguard murder. There are also politicians, discussing her, antagonistic towards her, including Sidney’s father.
Claude continues to function, but on lower key, for the next years, but eventually decides to go to the United States (a practically nothing in the film about what she did their), her deportation, trial in France, her imprisoned, eventual release. There is also a final encounter with Sydney who tells her that she has press charges against her father.
Madame Claude wrote a biography in the 1990s – but lived and in Nice until her death in 2015.
This is material that might have been amplified to affect in a miniseries rather than this dramatic dipping into so many different social and political themes.
