Film Review - Therese Desqueyroux - Audrey Tautou

Gilles Lellouche and Audrey Tautou in Thérèse Desqueyrou

Thérèse Desqueyroux is the last film directed by French director/producer/screenwriter Claude Miller and is an adaption of a novel of the same name by Francois Mauriac, published in 1927. Claude Miller died in April 2012, and the film was screened to close the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

The film's storyline, set in the 1930s, involves a young woman, Thérèse (Audrey Tautou) who marries her free spirited neighbor Bernard Desqueyroux (Gilles Lellouche). They then join their properties forming a vast estate of forests. Bernard has a forceful personality and Thérèse quickly finds her life is stifled by the tedium of provincial life, the intellectual mediocrity of her husband and the chores of motherhood. Through the eyes of her sister-in-law's lover, she dreams of escaping to Paris for stimulation and culture, and starts looking for a way to escape. Her husband Bernard almost poisons himself with an overdose of medically prescribed arsenic which Thérèse makes no effort to prevent even when she detects the overdose. This emboldens her to try and poison him directly but she is discovered and disgraced within her own family, as well as that of her husband. Claude Miller is known for his complex almost tortuous films involving female characters and this is no exception. Audrey Tautou well known for her comedy roles but increasingly for strong relationship drama (A Very Long Engagement) is well cast as Thérèse. Overall, a well shot period piece from France.