Summary
Mélanie Laurent's film addresses several issues, such as the disciplinary and patriarchal psychiatry of the time and its methods, a supposedly fantastic subplot and the tribulations of its proto-feminist protagonist, with uneven fortune in his development, in the combination of them and in the resulting message. Despite its great staging and its very good performances, it leaves the viewer with a sadness resulting from having witnessed a harsh story about helpless and violated women but that could have been better told, a sadness mix of empathy with them and frustration.
Review:
Eugénie (Lou de Laâge) is a curious young woman with intellectual concerns (a fan of Victor Hugo), with a wealthy and conservative family that takes care to suppress these concerns and prevent her from channeling them. When the father learns that the girl refers to "speaking with spirits", he decides to commit her to the famous Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, a psychiatric institution run by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, where he forges a bond with Geneviève, the head of nurses (Mélanie Laurent ).
Mélanie Laurent's film tackles several issues, with uneven success in its development, in their combination, and in the resulting message. In the first place, it illustrates the cruel "therapeutic" methods of psychiatry at the time, in an institution where in those years (the 80s of the 19th century) Freud himself practiced. It is clear in the film the role of the psychiatric institution and its methods as a device for patriarchal disciplining of "wayward" women (also reduced to the role of guinea pigs), standing as a successor to the witch hunt, now become "hysterical ", According to their definitions. A change from a religious paradigm to a strictly positivist one, both equally totalizing.
Secondly, there is the question of Eugénie's connection with the spirits of the dead, does it constitute a delusion of the protagonist or does she indeed possess that gift of hers? This aspect makes some noise and partially weakens the message of the film since at some point it "contaminates" and "justifies" for the gaze of the time the reasons why the protagonist is hospitalized. At the same time, however, the film makes some interesting notes on the relation of rationalistic positivism to the supernatural and religious and on the arrogance of positivism itself in general.
Third, the dramatic lift, where the film describes how the protagonist goes from her affluent but unsatisfied family life to the tribulations of mental hospitalization and the ways in which she relates to her companions and her medical staff. She. It is here where Laurent tries to balance rawness with restraint, objectivity with emotion, but the result works by half, since she also fails to provide a too original look. It is in this scenario that the agreements between the patient and the nurse will be woven, where not only the nurse is the one who seeks her salvation. This is where the proto-feminist and sisterhood elements of the story also appear.
The Mad´s Women (the viewer will already see the reason for the title) is a dark and melancholic film, with a great staging where the reconstruction of the period stands out and that has very good performances, but that leaves the viewer with a sadness Resulting from witnessing a harsh story about neglected and abused women that could have been better told, a sadness mixed with empathy with them and frustration.
Mélanie Laurent's film addresses several issues, such as the disciplinary and patriarchal psychiatry of the time and its methods, a supposedly fantastic subplot and the tribulations of its proto-feminist protagonist, with uneven fortune in his development, in the combination of them and in the resulting message. Despite its great staging and its very good performances, it leaves the viewer with a sadness resulting from having witnessed a harsh story about helpless and violated women but that could have been better told, a sadness mix of empathy with them and frustration.
Review:
Eugénie (Lou de Laâge) is a curious young woman with intellectual concerns (a fan of Victor Hugo), with a wealthy and conservative family that takes care to suppress these concerns and prevent her from channeling them. When the father learns that the girl refers to "speaking with spirits", he decides to commit her to the famous Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, a psychiatric institution run by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, where he forges a bond with Geneviève, the head of nurses (Mélanie Laurent ).
Mélanie Laurent's film tackles several issues, with uneven success in its development, in their combination, and in the resulting message. In the first place, it illustrates the cruel "therapeutic" methods of psychiatry at the time, in an institution where in those years (the 80s of the 19th century) Freud himself practiced. It is clear in the film the role of the psychiatric institution and its methods as a device for patriarchal disciplining of "wayward" women (also reduced to the role of guinea pigs), standing as a successor to the witch hunt, now become "hysterical ", According to their definitions. A change from a religious paradigm to a strictly positivist one, both equally totalizing.
Secondly, there is the question of Eugénie's connection with the spirits of the dead, does it constitute a delusion of the protagonist or does she indeed possess that gift of hers? This aspect makes some noise and partially weakens the message of the film since at some point it "contaminates" and "justifies" for the gaze of the time the reasons why the protagonist is hospitalized. At the same time, however, the film makes some interesting notes on the relation of rationalistic positivism to the supernatural and religious and on the arrogance of positivism itself in general.
Third, the dramatic lift, where the film describes how the protagonist goes from her affluent but unsatisfied family life to the tribulations of mental hospitalization and the ways in which she relates to her companions and her medical staff. She. It is here where Laurent tries to balance rawness with restraint, objectivity with emotion, but the result works by half, since she also fails to provide a too original look. It is in this scenario that the agreements between the patient and the nurse will be woven, where not only the nurse is the one who seeks her salvation. This is where the proto-feminist and sisterhood elements of the story also appear.
The Mad´s Women (the viewer will already see the reason for the title) is a dark and melancholic film, with a great staging where the reconstruction of the period stands out and that has very good performances, but that leaves the viewer with a sadness Resulting from witnessing a harsh story about neglected and abused women that could have been better told, a sadness mixed with empathy with them and frustration.