The pearl embroiderers
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The pearl embroiderers |
| Original title | Brodeuses |
 | |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Éléonore Faucher |
| script | Éléonore Faucher, Gaëlle Macé |
| production |
Alain Benguigui , Bertrand van Effenterre |
| music | Michael Galasso |
| camera | Pierre Cottereau |
| cut | Joële Van Effenterre |
| occupation | |
| |
The Pearl Embroiderers is a French feature film by Éléonore Faucher from 2004 .
action
Claire Moutiers is 17, lives in a small town in the French provinces, has been looking for a job for a long time after finishing school and is now earning a little money as a cashier. She is five months pregnant from a boy who works at the butcher's counter in the supermarket because the condom broke during sex. She initially repressed pregnancy. Nobody around her knows about it, so she is only occasionally smiled at because of her weight gain. Claire wants to give birth anonymously to the child and put it up for adoption. She lives alone and avoids contact with her parents and her younger brother during her pregnancy. Soon, however, her baby bump would also attract attention at work, so she went to a gynecologist in a neighboring town to get sick leave. During the examination, the doctor can identify the child's gender and, at Claire's request, writes it on a slip of paper that she gives her. She also suggests that Claire should grapple with the possibility of keeping the child after all.
Claire writes to her best friend Lucile about her pregnancy. Lucile invites her over when she and her brother are visiting their parents in a neighboring town. Lucile's brother Guillaume is depressed after having had a car accident with a friend. The friend died in the process, although the seriously injured Guillaume had walked for kilometers to get help in time. Now he blames himself. The dead man was the only son of Mrs. Mélikian, who works as an embroiderer. Claire, who in her spare time is passionate about embroidering small works of art with beads, furs and buttons, had asked her about work a year ago, but to no avail. Now she goes back to Mrs. Mélikian. In the best case scenario, she wants to stay with her for the last few weeks before the birth, so that she doesn't meet anyone she knows during this time. Ms. Mélikian hires Claire on a trial basis because she has some simple embroidery to do on the machine. Initially, Claire wants to stay with her for the ten days that she is on sick leave. At work, she has claimed that her weight gain came from cortisone that she received from cancer. To prove it, she had torn out a clump of her red curly hair so that her illness was believed. Ms. Mélikian soon realizes that Claire is pregnant. She herself cannot get over the death of her son, always wears black and often watches in front of her dead child's room. She is not distracted by working on a veil, which she embroidered with beads over a frame. A few days after Claire started working for Ms. Mélikian, she found her passed out in her house. She tried to kill herself with pills. Claire calls the ambulance and Ms. Mélikian survives. In the following years, Claire visits her regularly in the hospital and brings Ms. Mélikian together with Guillaume for a discussion. Claire finishes working on the veil and also embroidered an elaborate scarf that she gave to Ms. Mélikian after she had recovered. She is enthusiastic about her work. Claire is allowed to continue working for her, but breaks down with a nosebleed after working on the embroidery machine. Ms. Mélikian realizes that Claire's work has become too strenuous and sends her home over the weekend.
On Monday, Claire is back with Mrs. Mélikian. She was in Paris over the weekend and received an order from Christian Lacroix for elaborate bead embroidery for a dress. Lacroix awarded the contract to her and Claire, whose embroidered cloth for Mrs. Mélikian impressed him. Both women now spend the days embroidering pearls. Mrs. Mélikian tells Claire about her pregnancy and so gradually overcomes the grief for her lost son. Claire begins to accept her unborn child and even shows her mother her baby bump when she visits, but the mother does not recognize what Claire is trying to tell her. Claire then cries as she cries when Ms. Mélikian once refuses to help. Both are finally invited to the farewell party for Guillaume and Lucile. Guillaume will be leaving for three years and Lucile will begin studying in another city. Guillaume's injuries after the accident have healed, but this remark by Ms. Mélikian leads him to leave the party early. Claire follows him and they both finally kiss and make love in the great outdoors. Later, Claire and Mrs. Mélikian spend the night working on the beadwork, which has to be finished shortly. Claire falls asleep exhausted and in a dream sees herself at her mother's side with her child in her arms. The next morning she gives Ms. Mélikian the note to the gynecologist. She now knows that she is expecting a girl and wants to keep her child. She now also wants to tell her parents about the pregnancy. Together with Ms. Mélikian, she sits down again at the embroidery frame and begins to add the last beads of the dress.
production
Die Perlenstickerinnen was the feature film debut of director Éléonore Faucher, who had previously made two short films. The film was shot from November to December 2003 in Angoulême (including at the Abbaye de Saint-Cybard), Fleurie (Mrs. Mélikian's house) and at the Hôpital Le Vinatier in Bron . The interior shots were taken in Studio 24 in Villeurbanne . The film premiered on May 14, 2004 at the Cannes International Film Festival and was also released in German cinemas on May 19, 2005. It was released on DVD on November 24, 2005. Arte broadcast Die Perlenstickerinnen on October 9, 2008 for the first time on German television.
In addition to pieces by Michael Galasso , the film features numerous songs by the Louise Attaque group , including Je t'emmène au vent (from the album Louise Attaque , 1997), L'intranquillité and La Ballade de bas (from Comme on a dit , 2000 ). The rock group Tarmac is also represented with the song Sur mes lèvres .
criticism
The film dienst called Faucher's feature film debut "subtly developed ... and staged ...". The film "visualizes its symbolic level through a sensitive imagery, with the camera unobtrusively and sensitively observing the friendship between the generations." Der Spiegel praised the film and stated that the director Faucher " sometimes such a sensuality [develop] that the viewer believes to feel, smell and taste the world represented ”.
Cinema found that patience for the silent drama would reward viewers with “beautiful pictures”, and called the film “a small work of art, delicate as precious embroidery”.
Awards
At the 2004 Cannes Film Festival , Die Perlenstickerinnen was awarded the Critics Week Grand Prize and the SACD Screenwriting Award. He was also nominated for three Césars in 2005: Ariane Ascaride received a nomination in the category Best Supporting Actress , Lola Naymark in the category Best Young Actress and Éléonore Faucher in the category Best Debut . Lola Naymark was also awarded a Prix Lumières for Best Young Actress in 2005 . The film received the Prix du Syndicat Français de la Critique for the best French film debut .
Web links
- The beads embroideresses in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Die Perlenstickerinnen . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2005 (PDF; test number: 102 365 K).
- ↑ See imdb.com
- ↑ The pearl embroiderers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Cinema in brief: Die Perlenstickerinnen . In: Der Spiegel , No. 20, 2005, p. 133.
- ↑ See cinema.de