Available since September 17 on Prime Video, “Le Bal des folles” by Mélanie Laurent is the adaptation of the eponymous novel by Victoria Mas released in 2019. We tell you why you should not miss it.
Le Bal des folles: what is it?
Fifth fiction feature film directed by Mélanie Laurent after The Adopted (2011), Breathe (2014), To dive (2017) and Galveston (2018), The Bal des folles is the adaptation of the eponymous novel by Victoria Mas published in 2019. It is the first French original film by Prime Video.
The pitch:
The story of Eugenie, a luminous and passionate young girl at the end of the 19th century. Eugenie has a unique gift: she hears and sees the dead. When her family discovers her secret, she is taken by her father and brother to the neurological clinic of La Salpêtrière with no possibility of escaping her fate. This clinic, headed by the eminent professor Charcot, l‘one of the pioneers of neurology and psychiatry, welcomes women diagnosed with hysterics, madness, epilepsy and any other type of physical and mental illness. Eugenie’s path will then meet that of Geneviève, a nurse from the neurological unit whose life passes before her eyes without her really living it. Their meeting will change their destinies forever as they prepare to attend the famous “Bal des folles” organized every year by Professor Charcot within the clinic.
The role of Eugenie is played by Lou de Laage, that of Geneviève by Mélanie Laurent.
Why do we have to watch it?
Mélanie Laurent’s talent as a director is well established. With The Bal des folles, it tackles for the first time the period film. As for his three previous feature films, she decides to bring a novel to the screen.
The subject is first of all fascinating. Little known to the general public, the famous “bal des folles” was a real institution for the Parisian bourgeoisie. Indeed, the residents of La Salpêtrière were, for the only time of the year, confronted with the outside world. For them, it was a way out of their alienating hospital routine, and to be seen.
What is very beautiful in Mélanie Laurent’s film is that it does not film the Salpêtrière as a prison. On the contrary, she films it as a place of life, where hundreds of souls meet. She takes a look tender and bright on these women, who did not exist beyond these walls. To the coldness and rigidity of Charcot’s medical protocols, she opposes the warmth and desire for life of her patients.
If at the beginning of the film, Eugenie (brilliantly interpreted by Lou de Laage) sees her forced internment as a drama, she discovers herself within these walls. Thus, La Salpêtrière becomes a means for her to access who she really is.
A real success to discover now on Prime Video.
