Honoré de Balzac's Eugénie Grandet comes to atmospheric cinematic life, in French Movie Club screening at new time November 4
Latest Visions Ouest Productions and Alliance Francaise screening takes a ferocious look at the lives of women in early-19th-century France
Visions Ouest Productions and Alliance Francaise Vancouver present Eugénie Grandet at Cineplex Marine Gateway, postponed to November 4 at 7:20 pm, as part of Movie Club
MISERLY FELIX GRANDET rules over his daughter’s life with an iron fist in Honoré de Balzac's 19th-century classic, Eugénie Grandet. In the story, her father refuses to pay a dowry to marry her off, keeping her and her mother like prisoners in their rural house in Saumur. Imagine Ebenezer Scrooge, if he were a father and ensconced deep in cloudy provincial France instead of snowy Christmastime London.
But their controlled lives are thrown into chaos when Eugénie’s dapper-but-down-and-out cousin (César Domboy) arrives with tales of life in Paris.
Marc Dugain’s film conjures a grey, lifeless countryside, transporting you back to narrow, cobblestone streets and shadowy, candlelit homes. And the cast is strong—especially the luminous Joséphine Japy as the idealistic daughter who dreams of romance, and French veteran Olivier Gourmet
Balzac’s story feels ferociously progressive in its messages about men’s control over women’s lives and the evils of capitalism. Is the brutal patriarch as poor as he pretends to be? Is cousin Charles interest in Eugénie as genuine as it seems? And will Eugénie ever attain her freedom?
You’ll have to hit Visions Ouest Productions and Alliance Francaise Vancouver's latest Movie Club screening to find out—an in-cinema event that has subtitles.
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