MADELEINE COLLINS
France, 2021, 104 minutes, Colour.
Virginie Efira, Quinn Gutierrez, Bruno Salamone, Jacqueline Bissett, François Rostain, Loise Benguerel.
Directed by Antoine Barraud.
Madeleine Collins doesn’t really appear in this film. That is part of a point made at the end of the film.
This is a film about identity, a film about someone who is present to two families. In films, this is usually a man with two families. This time it is a woman. And she is played by Virginie Efira, emerging in the last decade as one of France’s most significant and versatile actresses.
There is an opening sequence with the Virginie Efira in a dress shop, with money from her mother, trying on dresses, and collapsing with low blood pressure, then leaving the shop and the sound of a crash.
However, the main action takes place in the two households, one in Switzerland where Judith is in partnership with Abdel and his little daughter to whom she is devoted. She is a translator and has to go to various meetings. But, most often she goes to Paris to her other family, longtime husband who is an orchestra conductor, eager to advance his career, and with two teenage sons. On the one hand she has a happy domestic household. On the other, there is the glamour of the theatre, performances, socials, wealth, the buying a house.
Each of the men knows the name of the other but does not really know what is happening.
Which means that this is something of a psychological study of how Judith, also known as Margot, dependent on an admiring forger who is able to give her any identity she wants or he wants to give her (Madeleine Collins), the way she relates to each of the men in the families. It is also a story of deceit, cover, lies, becoming more and more complex and the possibilities of her being exposed. There are parents (and a welcome cameo by Jacqueline Bissett as her mother), there are clients who turn up unexpectedly…
This is a film for admirers of Virginie Efira and those intrigued by stories of coping with double households.
- The title? Area of mystery? Identity?
- The Swiss settings, homes? The Paris settings, concert and orchestra, socials? The musical score?
- The prologue, the visit to the store, looking at the dresses, trying them on, the collapse, low blood pressure, the aftermath and the accident? With reference to the rest of the film? To Judith that her character?
- A film about a double life, a middle-aged woman, her background, the visit of her parents and her relationship to them? Her marriage to Melvin, many years, his career, the two sons, the household, her travels, his travels, the scene of buying the house? The socials, the concerts, her leaving with her low blood pressure? Her friendship with the singer?
- The relationship with a Dell, Her relationship, the little girl, not married, their life together, a love for the little girl and devotion, a contrast with her other family?
- Judith and her work, translations, the jobs, seeing her in action, but her creating situations, her lies, travels? Going from one family to the other? The effect on her?
- Annabelle, the death of his wife, the birth of his daughter, the relationship with Judith, setting up a household, her devotion, love, his feeling our absences, bringing another woman home, Judith’s reactions? The visit of her parents? The other woman in the house? Their observations, the little girl calling out to Judith as her mother?
- Melville, his career, promotions, concerts, the growing separation? Doris and his observations, listening, his own secrets and orientation? His reaction to Judith?
- Juggling the two lives, the times, the travels, the passport, the forger and his devotion to her, saying she would have as many names as she wished, giving her a final card and name?
- The police, her upset, wanting documentation, her refusal? Picked up by her father?
- The chance encounter, the Canadian, her name is Marco, at the social, her awkwardness, Abdul and his reactions?
- Judith, her identity, the two families, separations, alienations, wanting her own life, identity?
