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Violette

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France, Belgium · 2013
2h 12m
Director Martin Provost
Starring Emmanuelle Devos, Sandrine Kiberlain, Olivier Gourmet, Frans Boyer
Genre Drama

Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in post-WWII Paris. 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. A biopic of one landmark feminist writer and her intimate relationship with another such historical figure.

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91

Entertainment Weekly by

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.

50

The Dissolve by Andrew Lapin

It’s a brutal argument to make: that the most relevant information to convey about the life of an influential writer is the fact that she struggled early and often. This approach may seem philosophically appropriate for a movie about existentialists, but dramatically, it makes the film a bit of a slog.

75

Slant Magazine by David Lee Dallas

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

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

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.

42

The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo

A few excerpts of Leduc’s prose spoken in voiceover, expressing the same feelings poetically, can’t compensate for over two hours of maudlin self-pity. It’s so annoying that dull shots of Leduc writing serve as a welcome respite.

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