For A Woman (Pour Une Femme) (Diane Kurys, 2013): France

Reviewed by Felice Larsson, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2014.

Pour une femme means for a woman, and even if I did’t really could understand why they chose that name, I thought the movie was phenomenal. First I was a little bit skeptic over that the movie was frensh because the only french world I know is oui and I’ve never seen a french movie before it turned out great.

The move was inspired by the director Diane Kurys own family history about her parent during the World War 2. Michel and Léna are a happy cauple  that immigrated to France in hope for a citizenship. They got a child and Michel had his own suit business. But one day Michel’s brother Jean that the thought was dead showed up and was about to change it all.

In the movie you find out everything isn’t that great after all. Even Michel Loves her more then everything but he has his way of controlling things and doesn’t for example want her to get a job,because he don’t think that’s a thing for women and she can’ wear the dress that short and so on. When you see this small problems in their relationship you see that slowly Léna falls for Michels mysterious handsome brother. But Jean has a secret, he is in the military trying killing all the natzileaders that trying to escape at the borders. This mean that even if the falls for his brother wife he must leave Leon when the mission is done.

Diane takes us back to the beautiful Leon in the 1940s and it’s such a joy to watch.