The Beautiful Person
(La belle personne)
Regular Single Admission or $12 Special Double Feature with 7pm Show
Screening on Film
Screening on Film
Directed by Christophe Honoré.
With Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet.
France, 2008, 35mm, color, 97 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: IFC
With Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet.
France, 2008, 35mm, color, 97 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: IFC
For the third film of the trilogy, Honoré again (after Ma mère) updates a French novel from the past—this time, the 17th century classic The Princess of Cleves. This tale of love, courtly intrigue, infidelity and death is updated to a contemporary Parisian high school setting. When a new student arrives, she sets off a flurry of conjecture and flirtation. Less reliant on music than the other films in the trilogy, The Beautiful Person finds Honoré making an observation about woman’s desire and the tricky paths of cultural constraint she must navigate to identify a place in the world, as well as a point about the ability of the past to speak to us through art, imagination and, yes, desire.