Synopsis
Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through writing and on Simone's conviction that she holds in her hands the destiny of an extraordinary writer.
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Cast
- Emmanuelle DevosViolette Leduc
- Sandrine KiberlainSimone de Beauvoir
- Olivier GourmetJacques Guérin
- Frans BoyerLe jeune paysan
- Catherine HiegelBerthe Leduc
- Jacques BonnafféJean Genet
- Olivier PyMaurice Sachs
- Nathalie RichardHermine
- Stanley WeberLe jeune maçon
- Jean ToscaneMonsieur Motté
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
In Martin Provost’s graceful biopic, Emmanuelle Devos plays Leduc as a powder keg of a woman who used her loneliness and insecurity as the explosive fuel for her work. - 90
Village Voice
Provost's film, like its heroine, is full of active, sparking nerves. - 90
The New York Times
[A] handsome, intelligently absorbing and stirring biographical portrait. - 80
Time Out
It’s a movie about coming to peace with solitude, leagues beyond most biopics. - 75
Slant Magazine
By focusing on the tumultuous friendship between Violette LeDuc and Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Provost creates not so much a dichotomy of femininity as a funhouse mirror of it. - 75
New York Post
In Devos’ hard-charging performance, she’s also fascinating, and that’s all a film requires. - 75
Christian Science Monitor
“Séraphine” was haunting; Violette, for all its writhings, is familiar. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
As presented here, the novelist Violette Leduc is fascinating and strangely lovable, at least as seen from the audience. But actually knowing her? That would have been work.
