La dentellière

This film is about class, pure and simple. The shy Hubert comes from a lower class than her male lover. He can't accept her because she's not an intellectual like he is. He can't appreciate her quiet beauty because it is a nonverbal beauty, and he lives in a world of words and books.

Hubert's performance is wonderful.

What can I say about this movie? It reduced me to tears in 1977, and again in 2003. It doesn't stand up to over analysis, but it rings so absolutely true... which has given the film it's resonance down the years. Isabelle Huppert's performance is sublime, and the last scene one of the most heartbreaking in cinema.

Who knows why we retain the memory of some films and others remain a forgotten blip. "The Lacemaker" stayed with me over the years. I thought Isabelle Huppert played a marvelous part, and the story line fascinated me. I can still feel the sadness of her character when she was rejected by her lover, and then paid the price for her addiction to him. Films like "Blade Runner," "Murmur of the Heart," "Experience Preferred but not Essential, " The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "Closely Watched Trains," and a host of other good films will always be special to me, but not as endearing as "La Dentelliere."

"La dentelliière" is "Pretty woman" (1990, Garry Marshall, difference between man and woman in wealth) or (even more) "My fair lady" (1964, George Cukor, difference between man and woman in education) without an happy end.

A student falls in love with a hairdresser. His attempts to "upgrade" her are not only an insult for the woman, but in so doing the man also destroys the woman he is in love with.

The introvert woman is played by a young Isabelle Huppert and it is hard to believe that only a year later she would play a very cynical person in "Violette Nozière" (1978, Claude Chabrol).

The film is rich in brilliant scenes. I just mention a few. (1) After meeting each other for the first time the man and the woman are searching for each other. Because each of them is looking at places where he/she expects the other they don't find one another. (2) The man introducing the woman to his parents. The father in law likes his daughter in law from the first moment. The mother in law keeps asking questions about her education and carreer opportunities. (3) The man is having heavy philosophical discussions with his study friends. When the woman aks afterwards what al these discussions were about, he is not capable of explaining it in normal words.

The film ends with a close up renimiscent of "The 400 blows" (1959, Francois Truffaut).

Beatrice is a very reserved and quiet young woman. Her friend Marylene is left by her lover and brings her to Cabourg (Normandy) for a few days' vacation. There, Beatrice, an apprentice hairdresser, meets Francois, a middle-class intellectual. Francois becomes her first lover, but their social and cultural differences get in the way of happiness.

This film is highly praised and indeed it is a pretty good film. Not my favorite, not one I am likely to recommend to others, but a fine film just the same. What I liked most is that the movie says it is okay to be an introvert, to be a wallflower, to be a loner. Other movies might have a shy kid breaking out of their shell, but here we have Beatrice who knows who she is and is (for the most part) very comfortable about it.