The Lacemaker (1977)
"La dentellière" (original title)

Beatrice is a very reserved and quiet young woman. Her friend Marylene is left by her lover and brings her to Cabourg (Normandy) for a few days' vacation. There, Beatrice, an apprentice ... See full summary »

Director:

Claude Goretta

Writers:

Claude Goretta, Pascal Lainé (novel),

Stars:

Isabelle Huppert, Yves Beneyton, Florence Giorgetti

Won 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Isabelle Huppert	...	Pomme
Yves Beneyton	...	François
Florence Giorgetti	...	Marylène
Annemarie Düringer	...	Pomme's mother (as Anne-Marie Düringer)
Renate Schroeter	...	François' girlfriend (as Renata Schroeter)
Michel de Ré	...	The painter
Monique Chaumette	...	La mère de François
Jean Obé	...	Le père de François
Christian Baltauss	...	Gérard
Christian Peythieu
Heribert Sasse
Jeanne Allard
Odile Poisson	...	La caisière
Gilberte Géniat	...	(as Gilberte Geniat)
Sabine Azéma	...	Corinne (as Sabine Azema)

Storyline

Beatrice is a very reserved and quiet young woman. Her friend Marylene is left by her lover and brings her to Cabourg (Normandy) for a few days' vacation. There, Beatrice, an apprentice hairdresser, meets Francois, a middle-class intellectual. Francois becomes her first lover, but their social and cultural differences get in the way of happiness.

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Plot Keywords:

hairdresser | intellectual | law student | first love | female nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

France Switzerland West Germany

Language:

French

Release Date:

8 October 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Lacemaker

Filming Locations:

Cabourg, Calvados, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Action Films, Citel Films, Filmproduktion Janus

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Love Is the Beginning of All Terror (1984)

User Reviews

Essentially, this movie examines love from a class-based perspective

The student from Paris and his friends are intellectuals. He reads Le Monde. He is stamped by his background. The girl is in love with love. Everywhere she turns, there is love and passion evident, even through the hotel's thin walls. She only wishes to please and outwardly doesn't project herself as a self-regulated person. Her lower class background is clear before she goes on vacation where she meets the student. Although they stay in the same hotel, this is about the only thing they have in common beside the bed they share, but being removed from their normal lives just delays the obvious. Love is idyllic at first for everyone. She is hopelessly adrift among his friends in Paris and cannot communicate with them. This class based depiction is consistent with how many French view that one's birth divides a person from the other classes.

The class-based system exists here in the South, but I have a feeling that passion and love and familiarity more readily breaks down barriers than those 30 years ago in France.

This is a movie well worth seeing.