There’s a famous 1887 painting by André Brouillet called “A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière.” In it, a room full of men watch a strange demonstration going on at the front of the room. A man stands beside a table covered in medical instruments. A woman in a loosened corset, her breasts nearly exposed, swoons into the arms of a man. Her left hand clenches in a claw. This disturbing tableau depicts neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, celebrated for what was considered his groundbreaking treatment of the mentally ill at the Pitié-Salpêtrière asylum in Paris. He would often give demonstrations of his methodology, using actual patients.The Mad Women’s Ball 2021 Full Movie Download
This painting is recreated in Mélanie Laurent’s “The Mad Women’s Ball,” a compelling and vivid adaptation of Victoria Mas’ novel about two women trapped—in different ways—behind the gates of the Salpêtrière during Charcot’s reign.”The Mad Women’s Ball” is part psychodrama and part melodrama, and it wears those mantles proudly and confidently. Each scene throbs with urgency and emotion. Nothing is unimportant. At the same time, the film is highly controlled, with a taut assured script. Laurent, who also did the adaptation, deftly loops together two separate narratives, running side by side at top speed until they intersect.Eugénie (Lou de Laâge), a wealthy but rebellious young woman, is committed to the Salpêtrière against her will by her father (Cédric Kahn), who is concerned that his daughter occasionally talks (and listens) to the dead. She is thrust into a building more dungeon than hospital, filled with the howls and wails of women. Laurent, an accomplished actress, most well-known for her role in “Inglourious Basterds,” plays Geneviève, the head nurse, present at Eugénie’s traumatic intake. Geneviève is smileless and cold in the face of Eugénie’s terror. It appears at first that Geneviève is Nurse Ratched. Cold waters run deep, though. Geneviève is full of surprises.