Violette

Violette Leduc was an acclaimed and controversial French author who, encouraged by Simone de Beauvoir, began writing after WWII, earning the respect of such literary greats as Jean Genet and Jean-Paul Sartre for her frank and vivid memoirs. Emmanuelle Devos plays the author in Martin Provost's Violette, which begins during the Nazi occupation and follows Leduc for two decades up though her breakthrough success with the bestselling La Bâtarde. Violette pours her emotions and experiences out on the page at the urging of de Beauvoir (Sandrine Kiberlain), who championed Violette's work, introduced her to a literary circle, and at times even supported her financially. Like Provost's earlier Seraphine, this handsome biographical drama takes on a revered but troubled French artist who came out of poverty and neglect to rise to fame. Violette, however, is more about the writer's mother issues, anxieties over money, obsessive crushes, and fear of being unwanted and undesirable than about her art or inspiration. On the one hand, Provost name-drops literary greats in post-World War II Paris without exploring their work or their creative influences on Violette, but he also recreates the culture of post-war Paris with great texture and coaxes superb performances from both Devos and Kiberlain. Still, apart from speeches delivered by de Beauvoir, Violette never quite gets to the heart of why Leduc was such an important voice in her generation. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)