imaginations
The film takes place at a crossroads in French history, in May 1968, when the feminist movement was picking up speed. Opposite it is a boarding school for young women who are being prepared to be the perfect wife for their future husbands. But these girls no longer want to achieve the unconditional surrender that this requires. The headmistress’ business model is shaking, all the more so because her husband has left behind a mountain of debts and bankruptcy threatens. Juliette Binoche upgrades the film a bit, but it only works to a limited extent as a comedy.
A household school in the French provinces in 1968: Paulette Van der Beck (Juliette Binoche) runs the school, her husband Robert takes care of the finances. But when Paulette dies unexpectedly, Paulette has to deal with something that actually does not concern women: finances. The man takes care of the business, but it was unsuccessful and leaves a mountain of debt. Paulette could lose everything while the world around her is changing, because feminist ideas also reach the girls in the provinces from Paris. Just a wife hardly wants to be one anymore …
The film may have been number 1 in the cinemas in France, but that is certainly not a quality feature, especially since the re-release in June 2020 was also in the middle of the pandemic after the start of January. In times like these, the film may exude its charm because it tells of a simpler time, in which everything was somehow beautiful and colorful. But curiously enough, he also tells of a paradigm shift when the old rules no longer applied and the smell of change was in the air. That is actually an attractive topic, but one that the film is unable to play out. Because he is very sedate in his narrative.
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