The 2017 ‘Sage femme‘ (the title of the English distribution was ‘The Midwife’) by Martin Provost was a pleasant surprise and it is not clear to me why the film was underappreciated at the time by part of the public and by the juries of the annual French and European cinema awards. It can be said that it is an auteur film, being written and directed by Martin Provost, a director who has made at least one superb film – ‘Seraphine’. Even if he fails here to reach the same power and originality, Provost creates two remarkable female characters and brings together in the cast the two Catherines – Frost and Deneuve – in two roles that have the chance, each of them, to be among the best of their careers. The quality of the performances and the gentle approach to delicate situations detach this film from the platoon of (only) reasonable family melodramas.
The original title includes a subtle wordplay, which is exposed to those who are attentive or forewarned even in the credits. ‘Sage-femme’ means ‘midwife’ in French, and so it appears in the credits for the first moment, only for the dash to disappear after a few seconds and spectators be left with ‘Sage femme’, meaning ‘wise woman’. Which of the film’s two main heroines the title refers to and whether either of them deserves it will be up to the viewers to judge. Claire Breton is 49 years old and is the midwife that any mother would like to be assisted in childbirth by. Devoted to her profession, her private life seems to be deserted, however. She is single, the mother of a boy who is hesitantly studying medicine. The maternity hospital where she works is about to close, making way for a huge hospital, which seems to have as its goal the production of children through industrial methods. Returning from an exhausting shift, she receives a message from a woman with whom she would like nothing to do. It is Béatrice, her father’s ex-lover, who had left him over 30 years ago, leading to his decision to commit suicide out of despair. In a way, Béatrice is at the source of the emptiness and impasse in her life. But precisely then, this woman who seems to have had no other purpose in life than devouring everything that produces pleasure (including men) needs help. Don’t be concerned, I haven’t told too much, everything I wrote you will find out in the first five minutes of the film. In what follows, you will watch the meeting between the two women, the evolution of their relationship, the way each changes the other’s life. It is an emotional story, one sprinkled with surprises.
I believe that when great actors meet on stage or on screen, when they are well guided and when they collaborate with pleasure, they do not overshadow each other, but on the contrary, they mutually amplify their charm and expressiveness. The meeting in ‘Sage femme‘ between the two giant Catherines of French cinema is yet another confirmation. The two women have opposite characters and destinies in many ways and have many reasons to hate each other (especially one of them). Catherine Deneuve radiates carelessness and frivolity mixed with fragility and fear in the role of the woman who lives her life to the fullest, concerned only with her pleasures, until age and illness catch up with her. Catherine Frot plays the role of a woman who has dedicated her life too much to others and who realizes that the emptiness in her personal life can also lead to imbalance. Each of the two women will learn to love in a way that they had not known before. Melodrama? Of course, but well-dosed, believable, human.
Some of the most formidable scenes in the film are birth scenes. All of them are authentic. Catherine Frot trained as a midwife and what we see on screen are real births (filmed – for legal reasons – in Belgium, with the consent of the mothers and families). The secondary plot discusses the midwifery profession and how healthcare (in the maternity field here, but valid in many other branches) is becoming an industry. It would deserve to be the main subject of a film or several. There is also a romantic secondary plot, much more schematic, but at least it gave me the opportunity to watch again Olivier Gourmet, an actor I appreciate a lot. Kind of a farewell is also offered by the episodic role played by Mylène Demongeot, a great star of the ’60s, who is here in her penultimate role on the big screen. There are many reasons, therefore, to seek out and see this moving film, well written, directed with discretion and sensitivity, and played by the two Catherines the Great.