Violette is a 2013 French-Belgian biographical drama film written and directed by Martin Provost, about the French novelist Violette Leduc.[2] It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[3]
| Violette | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Film poster | |
| Directed by | Martin Provost |
| Written by | Martin Provost |
| Produced by | Gilles Sacuto Miléna Poylo |
| Starring | Emmanuelle Devos |
| Cinematography | Yves Cape |
| Edited by | Ludo Troch |
| Music by | Hugues Tabar-Nouval |
| Distributed by | Diaphana Films (France) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 139 minutes |
| Countries | France Belgium |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $1.6 million[1] |
Plot
editDuring the last years of World War II, Violette Leduc lives with Maurice Sachs, who doesn't love her but who does encourage her to write. She seeks out Simone de Beauvoir and eventually presents her with a draft of her first book. De Beauvoir rewards Violette's trust by reading and commenting on the book and by introducing her to contemporary intellectual icons Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet and Albert Camus. In 1964, the success of Violette Leduc's autobiographical bestseller La Bâtarde enables her to earn a living from her writing.
Cast
edit- Emmanuelle Devos as Violette Leduc
- Sandrine Kiberlain as Simone de Beauvoir
- Jacques Bonnaffé as Jean Genet
- Olivier Gourmet as Jacques Guérin
- Catherine Hiegel as Berthe Leduc
- Stanley Weber as Le jeune maçon
Reception
editViolette received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 86%, based on 50 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The site's consensus reads, "Led by an outstanding performance from Emmanuelle Devos, Violette is a rewarding, bracingly honest look at social mores and the literary life."[4] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 72, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave Violette 4 out of 5 and said that "Emmanuelle Devos brings enormous charisma to this story of writerly ambition and romantic disappointment".[6]
Accolades
edit| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magritte Awards | Best Foreign Film in Coproduction | Nominated[7] |
References
edit- ^ "Violette (2013)- JPBox-Office". Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ "Violette". unifrance.org. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ "Violette". TIFF. Archived from the original on 20 August 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
- ^ "Violette (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ "Violette". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (2 October 2014). "Violette review – fine biopic of Simone de Beauvoir's protege". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ "Magritte: Pluie de nominations pour les Dardenne et Lucas Belvaux". La Libre Belgique (in French). 7 January 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
External links
edit