Sabine (1993)

A young girl is deprived of her baby: her descent into hell begins.

Director:

Philippe Faucon

Writers:

Agnès L'Herbier (short story "La vie aux trousses"), Philippe Faucon (screenplay)

Stars:

Salvatore Caputto, Corinne Debonnière, Sylvia Haunetto

Cast

Credited cast:
Salvatore Caputto	...	Marco (as Salvatore Caputo)
Corinne Debonnière	...	Liliane
Sylvia Haunetto	...	Nicole
Étienne Julien	...	L'ami de Liliane
Catherine Klein	...	Sabine - une jeune fille à la vie difficile
Reynald Lemarie	...	Le père d'Agnès
Nora Liman	...	Nanou
Frank Paitel	...	Fred
Johann Roch	...	Matthieu
Yoni Roch	...	Un passant
Mark Saporta	...	Jérôùe - un garçon séduisant dont Sabine fait la connaissance

Storyline

At seventeen, Agnes leaves home and her alcoholic father.She meets Jerome ,and shortly afterward, gets pregnant by him.They visit his mother :although she does not disapprove of their union, Agnes feels ill at ease with her.She decides to have the baby and she tries her best to be a good mother.But Jerome's mother is over possessive and the young girl cannot stand her anymore .She breaks up with Jerôme ,and ,after a violent quarrel with his mother , she leaves them .Without her child,Agnes becomes a homeless girl, soon addicted to heroin, prostituting herself to survive.

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Plot Keywords:

shower | female nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French

Release Date:

3 March 1993 (France)

Company Credits

Production Co:

La Sept, Ognon Pictures

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Portrait of a downfall child.

A stark depressing drama ,which tells without embellishment and sentimentality ,the descent into hell of a drifting seventeen-tear- old girl.

Agnes leaves home and her alcoholic father.She leaves a note which reads "do not try to find me" .The father will appear ,though ,in one sequence, just to say he agrees to emancipate her , actually to get rid of her.Agnes has no more family ,which is a curse in our societies.

She meets Jerome ,and shortly afterward, gets pregnant by him.They visit his mother :although she does not disapprove of their union, Agnes feels ill at ease with her.She decides to have the baby and she tries her best to be a good mother.But Jerome's mother is over possessive :she soon realizes that her "daughter-in-law "is weak , immature ;under the pretext of helping her,she appropriates the child .These scenes ,more than Agnès's downfall in the last part , climax the movie,as this "normal" "straight woman begins to ignore the mother ,and calls the baby "MY Mathieu",a situation Jerome does nothing to rectify because "she pays the rent" .The feud between the two rivals is depicted by Philippe Faucon with absolute efficiency.

After breaking up with Jerôme ,and a violent quarrel with his mother , she leaves them .The triumphing mother-in-law keeps her grandson ;we even learn later that Jerome gets married to another woman and that Mathieu,who is his son just the same still lives with his grandma.

Agnès becomes a human wreck ,without a family ,without a job . She changes her name (she becomes "Sabine" ,hence the title)because Agnès ,outlawed from society ,is dead.Her descent into hell,told in succinct style and with short sequences ,is inexorable: prostitution,addiction to heroin ,drug trafficking , cold turkey, humiliating body search , and finally aids .

Some critics criticized Falcon for not sparing the sordid details .But ,as a condemned woman's last smoke (it was the early nineties , aids was then a fatal illness), Sabine/Agnes will spend one day with her four-year-old Mathieu.