This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

For me, "For a Woman" wasn't a particularly satisfying movie, though I'll admit that it's well acted and well made. Why wasn't I a fan of this French film? Well, it's hardly romantic and the story one I didn't particularly enjoy.When the film begins, two grown daughters are going through their dead mother's belongings. In the process, they find intimate items of hers...items which are from an affair many years ago. It seems that Lena and Michel met during the war...and Michel was responsible from saving her from a Nazi death camp. Following the war, the pair married and began a family. Shortly after this, Michel discovers that his brother survived the war and the Jean moves in with them. Eventually, you learn some of Jean's secrets and Jean learns that Lena is ready and waiting for a torrid affair with her brother-in- law.The film seems as if it's trying to be a romance but there are a couple serious problems. First, Michel is a decent guy. Sure, his politics are extreme but he loves his wife...so her cheating on him seems rather sad and sleazy to me. Second, she has sex with her brother-in-law...her brother-in-law!! This is pretty awful as well. So, despite being well made, the film came off (to me) as rather pointless and a tough sell. Additionally, everything in the film is telegraphed and not handled particularly well or with finesse.

Moments into this I realized it was a "continuation" or Another View of the engrossing and amazing 1983 film Entre Nous, starring Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert. That film focuses on the relationship between Lena (the director's mother) and Madeleine. This film focuses on director Kurys' parents, Lena and Michele, and their rocky marriage. Madeleine appears, but is essentially a satellite. The scenes between the two lack the incredible spark and frisson of the earlier film. Clearly Kurys is fascinated by her parents dramatic meeting and how their relationship reflects their times. To truly appreciate these revelations, it's essential to see the classier earlier film.

If you have some patience and can let this French drama unfold you may certainly find some rewards here, in what I found to be an absorbing and poignant film with interesting characters and fine acting all around. The movie was written and directed by Diane Kurys, of whom I've read often puts biographical material into her films and I got a sense that this was true here. Certain questions seem to be intentionally left unanswered, which may be OK with some viewers, but not all.The movie opens in France some four decades after the end of WW2. Two sisters Tania (Julie Ferrier) and Annie (Sylvie Testud) have come together to go through the belongings of their mother Lena, who had passed away some 3 months before. They also are coming to grips with the deteriorating health of their father Michel, who had divorced from Lena quite some time ago.However, Annie, who's a writer, becomes intrigued through old letters and photos with what might be the story of her parents lives and those around them. She begins to research and write her version of Lena and Michel's lives right after the end of the war. Michel and Lena are both superbly portrayed by Benoit Magimel and Melanie Thierry respectively.Told through flashbacks, we learn Michel saved Lena's life when they were in a French internment camp for Jews during the war. Later, after the war, they married in Lyon and soon thereafter had their eldest daughter Tania.Michel was a devoted member of the Communist Party while Lena was disinterested in politics. Things would get terribly complicated with the arrival of Michel's long lost brother Jean, also ably portrayed by Nicolas Duvauchelle. Jean will turn out to be part of a network hunting down and killing Nazi officers that are trying to escape capture. Additionally, more turmoil will be added to the mix when Lena and Paul fall in love.Although all the pieces here may not fall exactly into place, I still found this drama to be engrossing and well presented, and can be recommended to those viewers who like this kind of film.

This film is semi-autobiographical, based on the director's family of which we are reminded during the closing credits when pictures of the cast are replaced by black and white photographs that I assume to be the director's parents and close family.This is a handsome period piece set mostly in the 1940's though it features some scenes in the late 80's and 1990 that coincide with the deaths of the parents. The film concerns French resident Jewish survivors of WW2 and concentration camps. We learn that Michel and Lena meet at such a camp; he was interred as both an enemy soldier and a Jew, she because she was Jewish. He saves her from certain death and as a consequence of this she agrees to marry him. In 1945 they have their first of two daughters, Tania, and Michel settles into life as a tailor in Lyons pioneering different cuts, styles and fabrics for men's suits. Michel has been helped into business by fellow Communist, Maurice, and the pair become friends as do their wives with Michel devoting his spare time to the Communist cause. Into this idyll arrives Michel's brother, Jean, who was assumed to have perished fighting in WW2. His arrival heralds discoveries such as what became of their parents, Michel's troubled relationship with his father, the political activity of French and European Jews post-war hunting Nazis who are fleeing capture and trial and, most importantly, Lena's restlessness in her marriage to Michel.Michel loves Lena with a devotion that he retains until death. Lena married Michel from gratitude and never quite feels the same passion although they enjoy a loving marriage. Lena and Jean are attracted to one another immediately and this attraction signifies the beginning of the end of her marriage to Michel although it will be a few more years before she leaves him.The film is told from the perspective of Anne, the younger daughter, who we see at the start reminiscing and writing about her parents' story. The story is romantic and bittersweet and set as it is post-war amongst Jewish survivors, it has a certain epic quality, as though it stands for the truth of those times. Above all the film is very respectful and the closing lines capture the tone of the film well; these are them in English translation:"We're given a family to begin with and create our own story where there's room or where there's light. We grow up as best we can between unspoken words, unanswered questions. And then one day we look at our parents as a man and as a woman we might have met and simply loved for what they were." As a paean to parents the film works very well. Parents are likened to the perfume of the title 'pour une femme'; their scent lingers though their essence, when gone, remain ineffable. The perfume Michel buys Lena, a bottle of which is found by the sisters after his death, issues some of its fragrance though it is decades old, as was Michel and Lena's marriage.Although it falls into sentimentality sometimes the film balances well the mixed feelings of the people and the times. I have reached an age where the loss of my second parent seems imminent and the film's tone and paean resonated deeply with me. The soundtrack is lovely and the ending song exquisite. Diana Kurys has produced a gentle, splendid film. Unfortunately its gentleness might lead it to be overlooked and/or undervalued.