by Gill Pringle at Toronto International Film Festival

Based on Victoria Mas’ book of the same name, The Mad Women’s Ball tells the story of a radiant and passionate young woman, Eugénie (Lou de Laage), living in late 19th century Paris at the time of Victor Hugo’s death.

Eugénie possesses a special power to hear the dead although, when her upper-crust family discover her secret, she is locked up in an insane asylum, La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital, with no means of escape. The Parisian “neurology clinic” was run by celebrated professor and pioneer of neurology Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, where women diagnosed with hysteria, “craziness”, egomania, epilepsy, and other types of mental or physical diseases were committed.

Here, Eugénie’s destiny becomes entwined with that of Geneviève (portrayed by Laurent), a senior nurse whose life is passing her by. Their encounter will change both their futures as they prepare for the annual “Bal des folles”, organised by Dr. Charcot at the hospital, essentially putting his troubled patients on display for high society voyeurs.

“I think my relationship to spirits and ghosts changed just before I read Le bal des folles because I lost my best friend and I didn’t want to believe he was gone forever,” says Laurent, whose directorial prowess has been celebrated with a César Award for Tomorrow and critical acclaim for Breathe.

“I was really trying hard to find something else, and then I read the book and met a Medium although I was still super sceptical,” she tells us.

Unwilling to add any gimmicky ghouls to her genteel drama, she explains, “when we shot that scene where Genevieve is talking to the spirits, I thought maybe it didn’t matter if we don’t know and to let go of the certainty. Maybe we don’t have to have answers all the time? I felt that scene between Geneviève and Eugénie didn’t need to involve actually seeing anything. I think they’re just happy because she’s allowed to cry, and she’s allowed to be in pain and that’s just enough maybe?” Laurent says.

As an actress, Laurent has appeared in Inglourious Basterds, La Rafle and Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas, also featuring in Angelina Jolie’s By the Sea and opposite Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer in Beginners.

Also highly in demand behind the camera, she directed Elle Fanning and Ben Foster in 2018 crime drama, Galveston, and is currently in pre-production to direct The Nightingale starring Dakota and Elle Fanning based on the best-seller about two sisters living in France during World War II.

Always drawn to female stories, Laurent talks of how angry she felt upon first reading The Mad Womens Ball. “I really dug into that time period and did so much research into Dr Charcot. I read all the diagnoses and realised that, back then, any melancholic woman was considered mad. Or if a woman was angry because she’d just been raped and was having a crisis, she was dragged to the hospital and put in a cold bath. I was just so shocked to read that. I know Dr Charcot left a big trace as a doctor and his studies were considered important, but I also felt that those women were used, and nobody wanted to know about the reasons why they were how they were. I just thought it was really heartbreaking and when I’m watching the news – it’s the same thing over and over everywhere; we don’t see things, we never ask ourselves why? We never want to solve anything because we’re just avoiding everything and are in a big denial. It is pretty sad – and crazy,” she says.

For the film’s scenes at La Pitié Salpétrière’s large hospital ward, shared by multiple female patients, Laurent was insistent on casting real women as extras rather than actresses.

“I really wanted to be close to these women and make something intimate. I chose very specific extras to be part of the movie and be in that big room – they were all handicapped and all had a very singular thing, like some women had one leg or one arm, or very specific diseases or skin diseases and mental sickness. They were all amazing. They taped themselves and most of them were not actresses, but they told me that they felt beautiful and wanted to be in a movie where the subject is that they be seen as circus animals.

“I found that so strong, and I felt only women could say something like, ‘I’m beautiful and I don’t care what other people think. Film me – because I deserve to be filmed’. I was extremely lucky, and I felt suddenly the movie was not cold and graphic anymore. I really wanted to film them with love which I hope shows in the movie,” she says.

A scathing indictment of the mistreatment of women alienated for their strong will and “dissident” behaviours – many of whom consequently suffered from mental illnesses, the film is a portrait of sisterhood and trauma in the face of systemic misogyny.

Although The Mad Womens Ball is a French period drama, Laurent believes her film has very modern sensibilities.

“I became obsessed with how this movie is actually about women today and that this story is so relevant. I wanted to talk about them to make us think about where we’re coming from instead of what’s happening right now and, obviously when I’m seeing all the craziness in the world right now, I’m feeling like it’s a pretty modern subject at the end of the day.”

The Mad Women’s Ball is streaming now on Prime Video.

Shares:

Leave a Reply