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.
Acting
Devos simmers with desperate brilliance; Kiberlain's cool control masks everything.
Production
Postwar Paris so tactile you can smell the Gitanes and stale coffee.
Writing
Dialogue that stings—every compliment feels like a wound.
Director
Martin Provost
Emmanuelle Devos
Violette Leduc
Sandrine Kiberlain
Simone de Beauvoir
Olivier Gourmet
Jacques Guérin
Frans Boyer
Le jeune paysan
Catherine Hiegel
Berthe Leduc
Jacques Bonnaffé
Jean Genet
Olivier Py
Maurice Sachs
Nathalie Richard
Hermine
Stanley Weber
Le jeune maçon
Jean Toscane
Monsieur Motté
Nicole Colchat
Madame Belaval
Fabrizio Rongione
Yvon Belaval
Erwan Creignou
Marcel
Vincent Schmitt
Un forain
Jean-Paul Dubois
Ernest
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Leduc's 1964 memoir 'La Bâtarde' was censored for its lesbian content; the film captures her struggle to write desire that 1950s France refused to name.
De Beauvoir's real letters to Leduc were destroyed; the film invents their intimacy from absence, which somehow feels more honest.
FR
