| 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 |
Violette is a 2013 French-Belgian biographical drama film written and directed by Martin Provost, about the French novelist Violette Leduc. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Plot
During 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
- 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
Violette 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." 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". 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".
Accolades
| Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magritte Awards | Best Foreign Film in Coproduction | Nominated |
References
- "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
| Films directed by Martin Provost | |
|---|---|
|
- 2013 films
- 2013 drama films
- 2013 biographical drama films
- 2010s historical drama films
- French biographical drama films
- 2010s French-language films
- Belgian biographical drama films
- French historical drama films
- Belgian historical drama films
- Films set in Paris
- Films shot in Paris
- Biographical films about writers
- Films directed by Martin Provost
- Cultural depictions of Simone de Beauvoir
- Cultural depictions of French people
- Cultural depictions of writers
- French World War II films
- French-language Belgian films
- Belgian World War II films
- 2010s French films
- 2010s Belgian films