VENUS BEAUTY
France, 1998, 107 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Baye, Bulle Ogier, Jacques Bonnaffe, Mathilde Seigner, Audrey Tautou, Robert Hossein, Edith Scobe, Marie Riviere, Clare Dennis.
Directed by Tonie Marshall.
Venus Beauty was written and directed by Tonie Marshall (daughter of Micheline Presle who appears as one of the aunts in this film with veteran actress Emmanuele Riva). Tonie Marshall had already made the light comedy Pas Trop Catholique and was to go on to make Nearest to Heaven (a variation on the plot of An Affair to Remember, using considerable sections of the film itself) with William Hurt and Catherine Deneuve.
This film focuses on women who work in a beauty salon. Natalie Baye is Angele, seemingly professional in her work but wandering the streets at night picking up men for sex. The film also shows her failed marriage, her shooting her husband, and her meeting up with another young man. The young man’s girlfriend attempts to shoot him and Angele but is not successful? The film combines issues of sex as well as of violence.
The film also focuses on Angele’s associate, Nadine (Bulle Ogier) the owner of the shop. It also focuses on two of the assistants, Mathilde Seigner who appeared in a number of films including The Girl from Paris, and Audrey Tautou who made such an impact in Amelie as well as Dirty Pretty Things.
1.The film’s impact for a French audience? International audiences? For women? For men?
2.The salon, the title? The interiors, the women at work? The day work? The contrast with the night, the cafes, railway stations, the meetings and pick-ups? The musical score and the songs?
3.The focus on Angele, as a character, her relationship with her husband, her shooting him? The failed marriage and its effect on her? The contrast between her work in the beauty salon and her walking around the city at night, the pick-ups, in the cafes, the railway station? Her interactions with Nadine, Nadine offering advice? The fantasy and reality of Angele’s life? Her interactions with the two young assistants, comparisons and contrasts with their experience? Meeting Antoine, his pursuit, the girlfriend, the attempted shooting? His deflecting the shot? Angele and Antoine, the end, their dancing? A future?
4.Nadine, practical and common-sensed, management of the salon? Her own personal life? Her helping Angele?
5.Appearances and reality? Nadine and her explaining the values of the various products on sale? The attack by Samantha? Nadine and her standing her ground? Her being a better role model than Angele, especially for the young women?
6.The two women assistants, their contrast of character, worldly wise and naïve? Their work, their own relationships? Samantha, her age, personality, attitudes towards sexuality, in the vein of Angele’s life? The contrast with Marie, naïve, her relationship? The pilot, the liaison, the sex ritual? The effect on Marie and her future? The dreaming of eroticism? The contrast with the promiscuity of Angele and Samantha?
7.The portrait of the men, Angele’s husband, Antoine as being younger, pursuing her, his girlfriend? The pilot, the relationship with Marie? The various men picked up by Angele? Her being seen as a sexual predator?
8.The film’s perception of women, a woman’s point of view? Marianne and her comment that Angele was very sad? Angele’s lonely life, no interest in anything outside her life, other people, trying to possess her youthfulness? Nadine’s advice about not being a girl any more and having to make that decision and follow it through?
9.The visit to the aunts, their liveliness, humour, their values, reality vs fantasy? The effect on Angele?
10.A film of the 1990s, the portrayal of women, women’s issues, women’s perspectives?
