The Midwife (2017) User Reviews

a emotionally rich tale about two very different women

[CineMuseFilms · 8/10 · 25 October 2017]

One of the many ways that European and Hollywood films differ is that the former is willing to dwell on the ordinary while the latter usually prefers to make stories bigger than they merit. The French film The Midwife (2017) is an example of storytelling that works simply by putting two very different women together and watching how they resolve the webs of emotion that have become tangled over time.

As she approaches her 50th birthday, devoted midwife and single mother Claire (Catherine Frot) faces professional upheaval when her clinic must close. Her orderly conservative life is fractured further when the woman she blames for her father's suicide suddenly makes contact after 30 years. Opposites in every way, Beatrice (Catherine Deneuve) is manipulative, irresponsible, and a chronic gambler who loves fine wine and rich food. Claire's suspicion that Beatrice wants something is proved correct when the latter confides that she is dying, homeless and without support. Initial rejection turns into understanding for the midwife whose instincts are to nurture life, as she juggles the needs of Beatrice, the clinic's closure, and her neighbour's romantic advances. When her son announces he is quitting medical school and his girlfriend is pregnant, the always competent Claire confronts being helpless in a sea of change.

These narrative strands and their complications are not what sustains the story. Rather it is the way these two icons of French cinema fill out their roles and the emotional connections they make. The flamboyant Beatrice is dramatic and unfiltered, while the restrained Claire is measured and well aware of the other's character flaws. One is a taker, the other a giver, yet both are engaging in different ways. As Beatrice confronts her fate, Claire continues bringing new life into the world in several very moving childbirth scenes that anchor the earthy realism and ordinariness of the story. The filming style dwells on warm and intimate moments, capturing both the charms and emotional swirls of French village life. Great acting and filming complements a script that finds uncontrived humour in everyday places.

Richly nuanced performances in the European cinematic tradition are at the heart of The Midwife. This is not a film that offers rising tensions towards a big resolution. Instead you are likely to leave the cinema with a bitter-sweet afterglow that comes from sharing moments of unbridled joy, sadness, and the ambivalent ordinariness of our existence.

Charming Small Slice of Life

[JackCerf · 7/10 · 1 August 2017]

This French picture is the kind of small scale, unpretentious slice of life story that no one in the US is interested in making. The title character, Claire (Catherine Fort), is a 49 year old midwife (French sage-femme, literally "wise woman") at maternity a clinic in Mantes-la-Jolie, a town about 30 miles outside of Paris, making about €30,000 per year.

In an earlier age, Claire would have been a nun, and a damn good one. She's a real crunchy granola type – has a tidy apartment in what looks like well kept, racially integrated public housing, bikes to work, doesn't own a car, spends her free time in her garden plot, is vegetarian but not vegan, and doesn't drink. Her only son is a second year med student (no father in evidence) who is about to make a life changing decision.

The long haul truck driver who inherited the neighboring garden plot from his dad is making tentative advances. (His opening move is to offer Claire some seed potatoes, along with an explanation of why they cook up so much better than other spuds.) Claire is content with modest material comfort and using her experience to help other women. Unfortunately, the clinic where she works is going out of business soon, and Claire is repelled by the high-tech, big money modern obstetrics as practiced at the regional hospital.

Into this modest life one day comes Beatrice (Catherine Deneuve). Beatrice is a bimbo emeritus at the end of her road. She's just been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor, and she's looking to get in touch with Claire's father, Antoine, whose mistress she was 40 years ago. Antoine was a world class swimmer in his day, and Beatrice was happily shacked up with him and his daughter in an apartment on the Boulevard St. Germain. Then she left one day, for reasons that are never expressly stated, though it is implied that the money was running out, and she moved on to other men. After she left, Antoine killed himself. The suicide was in all the papers and is now in Wikipedia, but Beatrice had no clue. As she tells Claire, she never read the papers, and the internet is a mystery to her.

Beatrice is pretty much alone in the world, living a cash basis life, supporting herself by a combination of gambling and hocking the jewelry men gave her over the years, and squatting in the apartment of a former lover who went back to Lebanon when the civil war ended. Red meat, red wine, cigarettes and the kindness of strangers have brought her this far, and she sees no reason to change just because she has terminal cancer. But Beatrice is no Blanche duBois. She's tough, she's shrewd, and she's been manipulating people (usually men) with fake helplessness all her life.

Although she blames Beatrice for her father's suicide, Claire finds herself drawn into taking care of her. The experience loosens Claire up a bit but doesn't fundamentally change her. There are some arguments, some confidences are exchanged, but there is no grand reveal and no tearful reconciliation. Claire also finds herself slowly getting involved with the truck driver, a solid, unpretentious guy who loves good food and good wine. It's charming and, since it a French movie, there is an outdoor meal. Beatrice departs, and life goes on. You find yourself getting fully involved in this Frenchwoman's life for two hours.

Birth Of A Gem

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 7 July 2017]

So far this film has attracted a mere three reviews here one of which is clearly the work of a Philistine. The movie stars two of the heaviest hitters in current French cinema and the only way to distinguish between them is to note that Ms Deneuve has been giving world-class performances just a tad longer than Ms Frot (nee 1956). With titans like this it is necessary only to let them read alternate pages of Le Figaro and the price of admission is money well spent. As it happens the plot is more than serviceable and director Provost throws in some tasty camera angles and the odd exquisite scene like Frot cycling home from a night shift through a Paris greeting a new dawn. A minor gem but a gem all the same.

Just good, It did not get a lot out of me.

[subxerogravity · 7/10 · 25 July 2017]

Another recent French film that I felt was just OK.

It was not bad, but it's nothing to brag about. Everything is pretty mediocre.

Sure, it's a lovey and interesting story about Midwife who is contacted by her father's mistress 30 years after the relationship because she going through cancer and wanted to see her and her father again, but as it turns out the father is dead leaving the midwife to be the only thing close to a family the mistress has, and most of the movie is about if the midwife feels the same way.

it was mostly drama with a few funny moments but nothing really made me laugh or cry, it was all too bland in the delivery.

I'm still waiting for the french to come out with something like the Intouchables again.

http://cinemagardens.com

Beautiful performances from Catherine(s) The Greats

[david-rector-85092 · 9/10 · 9 March 2017]

I really enjoyed this movie; in part as it starred my favorite actress from 2016: Catherine Frot, and her exquisite performance as 'Marguerite'. Frot has such stillness and poise on screen, but can also command great presence with minimal effort. Here, as the titular 'Midwife, Catherine Frot is delivered a role that gives her a chance to really shine. From the opening scenes her 'Claire' is a good woman; a skilled professional but lacking a personal life or much hope it seems. Blessed with a son she only sees fleetingly, her life is turned upside down when Beatrice played by Catherine Deneuve re-enters her radius after vanishing more than 3 decades before and causing Claire's father (one time lover of Beatrice) irreparable damage and an indelible imprint for young Claire. It is a fascinating dance that these two characters create through their often awkward scenes together.

The film is only a success because of the chemistry between these two marvellous actresses. The narrative ambles all over the place, messily edited and at times a little predictable, but seeing these two share the screen is pure magic, and compensates for where the film is otherwise lacking. Beneath the choppy script lies some rich fabric about life and death; life changes and the power of forgiveness and redemption: always soulful pursuits for the big screen. I wanted this to be perfection; of course it is not. Catherine Deneuve deserves an Oscar nomination for this; she is unafraid to show her age; her flaws and creates a memorable screen character, a former good time gal, whose life is slipping away from her, as she clings to the joie devivre that had sustained her. It is a privilege to watch a screen icon; still beautiful, but displaying how beauty can fade. There is much dignity here from both Catherine the Greats!

The Midwife

[indiecinemamagazine · 1/10 · 21 February 2017]

The Midwife (Sage Femme) was shown at the 2017 Berlinale out of competition. The film provokes many questions and the most important one is why this trashy opus of Martin Provost was selected for the program of the festival. Perhaps the answer is the participation of the great French cinema legend Catherine Deneuve.

Catherine Frot plays the main part in the film, the boring midwife Claire Breton, Deneuve plays her friend Béatrice Sobolevski. We can only feel sorry for Deneuve who agreed for a role in such a forgettable picture which has mediocre camera-work, terrible lighting, uninteresting dialogue and a complete lack of an artistic vision. What is even sadder is that many critics are calling this her best role in years! The film is itself a symbol of banality which dominates cinematography today.

Although the picture pretends to be a dramatic-comedy, the audience at the press screening never laughed. The jokes were not funny, the characters paper thin. Provost has a reputation of being a director who is an expert on women's psychology but this film proves that his esteem is hugely overrated. The film which is about a midwife features multiple childbirth scenes filmed in a real hospital however these scenes only show the superficial side of the process and leave a disgusting aftertaste.

Read more at: http://indie-cinema.com/2017/02/the-midwife/

Touching

[zicteban · 9/10 · 27 July 2017]

Nice story line, great acting and a subtle and beautiful face to face between two complex and good-hearted women whose common feature is sweetly whispered at the end of the movie: for 2 women whose birth was not so welcome we've made it fairly well. It is all about memory, regret and will to go ahead. Great movie.

Unlikely French melodrama

[dierregi · 5/10 · 8 November 2019]

The premise of this story is preposterous: long ago, midwife Claire's father had a mistress named Beatrice (Deneuve), and he killed himself when she left him. After many years, Beatrice gets in touch with Claire (Frot), who is obviously none too pleased.

Covering the unlikely relationship of these two women would make the movie interesting enough, but the plot twist is that Beatrice is terminally ill and Claire is the only one who can take care of her. In a role reversing her profession, Claire should ease Beatrice' s itinerary towards death.

The first problem is that Deneuve does not look like a terminally ill woman. She looks very good, but that is not what her part calls for. Then, her character is extroverted, warm and much more charming than Frot's, which makes it difficult to sympathise with the wronged woman. Also, the chronology is weird: Claire's father was a champion swimmer and he is seen in old pictures sporting 70s hairdo and swimming trunks. However, Frot is from 1956 and looking her age, which would make her father (at least) in his late thirties in the 70s. Swimmers are at their peak in their twenties...

Unless the characters are supposed to be younger than their real age, but then why not hire younger actors?

Finally, some of the dialogue is cringe worthy: would a father really discuss a mistress'kissing technique with his daughter?

I tried to put myself in Claire's shoes, but even with the added layer of sleaze that seems to permeate French culture, I could not imagine my father sharing intimate details of a failed relationship (nor I would have wanted him to). I also tried Beatrice's shoes and I absolutely cannot imagine myself approaching an ex-lover's daughter, because I am ill and I want to make amends before I go. Not even if that particular lover of long ago was the only "true love" of a very turbulent life.

A beautiful film about life in transition

[revlindacarter · 8/10 · 27 November 2017]

Other reviewers have already given pretty good descriptions of characters and plot of this gentle film. But I think more attention must be paid to the character of being a midwife in this story. Claire's role in life is to usher babies from life in the womb to life as a separate being, and to help parents make the transition to parenthood. I loved the little scene where a mother is in labor, and her husband is dutifully recording the event with his cell phone. But Clair invites the husband to give up his role as spectator, saying, "I need your help. Can you just hold your wife under her hips like this." And soon the baby is born, right into the arms of the waiting father. In the same way, Beatrice calls on Claire to be her midwife as she moves through the passage from life to death. But there are other transitions in the story: Claire's own impending move to a career outside the cocoon of her maternity clinic, perhaps including a new love in her life, and the journeys of her son and his lover as they also expect a child. Other than the delivery of babies, the other transitions are still in progress when the movie ends. I like that we are shown a slice of life, but the writer/director does not try to tie up all the "loose ends" that remain in Clair's life.

Virtues of a Foreign Film

[clg238 · 8/10 · 24 September 2017]

Unlike many Hollywood films, I find that foreign films render the complexity of characters and relationships more akin to real life, and so it is in "The Midwife." The film also excels in giving us a context for the fraught relationship of the two women leads, Claire and Beatrice, but not with easy flashbacks or an improbable verbal summary; instead, their history unfolds the way it would in real life--in bits of dialogue that not only bring up the past but show us how, although buried by Claire and superficially dismissed by Beatrice, it has lingered sufficiently to scar them and to force them to come to new terms in addressing their present situation. I love the dimensionality of Claire: she has a job she loves (midwife in a hospital) but it's threatened by the hospital's drive for technology that will bring greater profits; she has a son who is also complex; a hobby (gardening); a fraught relationship with her mother; memories of her father that are both painful and loving. In short, she is a full- fledged human being. This is a fine film that centers on people, not violent or titillating events.

Wise Women

[pagbwi · 8/10 · 29 August 2020]

Midwife = Wise woman in translation. This movie is about two wise women. Unlike Hollywood you are not drawn to a particular conclusion. You see the main characters interact with each other and what they don't say and their behavior towards each other, tells you more at times than the dialog. See it for yourself. Your own experiences will influence it's interpretation. I enjoyed this movie. You rarely see movies like this in America.

Live to the limit

[jromanbaker · 10/10 · 23 February 2020]

This is a life enhancing film, and I cannot even begin to comprehend why it has been called trashy. Catherine Deneuve gives one of her greatest performances, and a mention must be made of Mylene Demongeot. During the one scene she was in she almost stole the film for me. For those who have never heard of her get hold of a copy of ' The Witches of Salem ' with Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. She stole the film back in the 50's and she can still do it now. But it is Deneuve who shows that she has total control of the film in a life affirming role. She wants to live, and live she does to the limit of her joy and her endurance. Anybody who may think this was an easy role to play and succeed is an idiot. She shows herself as she is now and the beauty, the power of presence and the way each gesture and look of the eye advances the film is a miracle of acting. Catherine Frot is excellent and France has yet another powerful actor and I hope she is given equally good roles for a long time to come. Above all I did not find the film distressing. Life is distressing and the film has the strength of will to show that it can be painful from birth until death. But between these two inevitable events of our lives we live, messily, cleanly, hurting people and being hurt. This illusion that Deneuve is a taker and not a giver in the film is simplistic. She needs a lot from others. She shows it and she gives when she can, and watch how through the force of her nature she releases Catherine Frot from a certain primness; makes her smile, lets down her hair. A great film and the title in English may put off many. ' Sage femme ' does mean midwife, but there is still the resonance in the the French title of wisdom and a wisdom life can bring.

Mesmerizing pas-de-deux with two terrific Catherines

[alexdeleonfilm · 8/10 · 21 February 2017]

Viewed at the 2017 Berlin Film festival. MIDWIFE -- (Sage Femme) with Catherine Deneuve (73) and Catherine Frot. The second film of the day at the lavish Zoo Palace venue, was "Sage-Femme" which does not mean "Wise woman" but is the French term for a midwife. Catherine Frot, (born 1956) is the attractive somewhat older woman Claire (she has a grown son) who is a dedicated professional deliverer of babies (we see a number of such deliveries in bloody stomach churning closeups of new borns) but this is not the main story. It turns out that Claire is the resentful daughter of a wayward mother who left home thirty years earlier, Catherine Deneuve. Once Deneuve (still looking good at 73) enters the picture the story becomes a battle of wills between two strong women but when we find that Deneuve is suffering from a terminal brain cancer daughter Claire, until now full of resentment and anger, relents and takes her in.

Claire is a health food advocate and Deneuve just the opposite. She loves her red meat and wine even if it will kill her. There is a side story involving a single unattractive middle aged truck driver who falls in love with Claire and she more or less out of loneliness accepts his advances. But this is excess baggage only there to advance the basic plot between the two intense Catherines. Many little details such as a valuable family ring enter into the story but at the end, Deneuve, rather than continuing to be a burden on Claire literally jumps in the lake (a pond near the vegetable garden Claire maintains) leaving a most touching Farewell note, bearing only an imprint of her lipstick and the ring that has kept changing fingers. This is a very strong thespian pas-de-deux, directed by Martin Provost, and is another strong contender for a best acress bear -- and a best co-star prize, if there was such an award, for Deneuve.

image1.jpegThe Two Catherines, Deneueve and Frot, in "Sage-Femme"

Precious moments

[sjackieveronica · 8/10 · 3 March 2020]

There are two Catherines in this film, the ever-beautiful Catherine Deneuve and charming Catherine Frot. They are equal in stature, performance and grace. This is a beautiful film with so many nuances and attention to tiny detail: the contrasts of fragility and strength of relationships portrayed through the marrying of opposing forces. Beatrice (Deneuve) and Claire (Frot) are perfectly balanced. The male presences of Claire's son and boyfriend are almost superfluous but without them, the gradual understanding developing between Beatrice and Claire would be too intense, too insular. Claire's profession as midwife is beautifully portrayed through real-life births which bring out her innate empathy and humanity. The metaphor of the closing maternity clinic where she works and the new, technically advanced hospital where focus is on the number of births achieved rather than the intimate personal deliveries, where the senior 'midwife' is now male - a birth technician - is reflected in Claire's life where the past, never far away from her mind, is relived through Beatrice's coming back into her life, and which comes to mean so much more to her than her present or future.

There are subsidiary themes about women's independence, appropriation of female roles by men, the diminution of women's private and intimate worlds in today's society. While these are interesting, they do not detract from the central theme of the film: women's relationships and how, despite all challenges, women will understand another woman in a way that she will never understand the opposite sex.

Another complex and riveting example of French filmmaking.

Breathtaking!

[josiegirl05 · 9/10 · 1 October 2020]

Frot and Deneuve are magical together. The acting is sublime.

Wonderful examination of an unlikely relationship

[wliu77 · 9/10 · 28 May 2021]

If you were to ask me if how I would feel about a relationship between me and my father's mistress I would say that I personally would not condone it. One must be very strong to be able to show compassion towards someone who has caused your family so much pain. But there she is - Beatrice in pain herself. Here are some things I liked about this film: Complex characters. Beatrice who's unhealthy lifestyle which may have contributed to her illness. From the beginning she is an unlikeable character. If someone like her were to come into my life I would have written her off at the drop of a hat. Somehow I was able to like her by the end. Then we have Claire sweet and full of nurture. The moment when she finds out that she's going to become a grandmother is precious.

The one moment I hated is the scene in the hospital where an injured mother arrives. Unfortunately the baby wasn't able to be resuscitated. All the birth scenes were apparently real and to see this was in my opinion in poor taste and quite traumatizing to see. I really wish I could unsee that scene.

Exquisite

[selffamily · 9/10 · 27 October 2018]

I fell across this by pure chance, and I'm delighted that I did. The title character, Claire is beautifully lived by Catherine Frot and her late father's ex-mistress turns up looking for him, only to discover that he killed himself when she left, and Claire has blamed her for this ever since. They are not the best of friends naturally, but it's sweet that Beatrice calls Claire her daughter when they are in the hospital, yet openly discusses Claire's mother with her at other times. Claire has a son who bears a startling resemblance to her father and this naturally affects Beatrice when they meet. There are other threads - the impending redundancy, the son and his pregnant partner, and the allotment where Claire grows all her own vegetables and meets Paul, who has taken over his father's patch. The allotments are alongside a rural part of the River Seine and her son loves to swim there. Claire who is a pescaterian, non-drinking, non-smoking healthy woman, who has strict boundaries around her, slowly releases hold on all the rules she has built around her as she cares for the recalcitrant Beatrice who is dying of a brain tumour. The women grow closer as time passes, and at the end of the film, it is Claire who has changed and is much happier. A lovely, gently amusing story with usual French clarity and no nasty surprises.

midwife finds new life through father's lost mistress

[maurice_yacowar · 8/10 · 5 July 2020]

The title could be plural. While Claire is the actual midwife, having delivered a generation of newborns into the world, her antithetical Beatrice also serves as a kind of midwife when she brings Claire into new life. The rootless amoral wastrel Beatrice breathes new energy, spirit and joie de vivre into the abstemious midwife, pulling her out of her womb of natal duty. Beatrice is aided by Paule, the long-distance trucker whose garden abuts Claire's. When he leads her to a spectacular high panoramic view he repeats the midwife's instructions at birth: "Breathe. Take a deep breath." Paule confirms Beatrice's urge to accumulate as much pleasure as she can as she succumbs to the cancer in her brain. Another rebirth occurs at the professional level. The clinic is closing for want of funds. Claire's colleagues are happily joining an ultra-modern, high-tech and profitable new super-clinic. Claire's early reluctance to join them is confirmed when her visit discovers that the new tech will make her experience and values obsolescent. She rejects that rebirth - a conversion to the technical - and instead renews her faith in the human values of her profession. She will teach her old ways rather than abandon herself to the new. That reaffirmation of herself is itself a rebirth, if rather a renewal than a conversion. Claire's son Simon parallels her movement. Not faring well in his plan to become a surgeon, he decides to become a midwife himself. Or as the new world has it: birth technician. This as his own fiancee is pregnant. Dramatically, Claire's last delivery in the old institute is an emergency operation on a young woman whom she delivered 28 years ago - whose life she saved by providing her own blood. "Lucky we had the same rhesus," she adds modestly, feeling she was only doing her job. Beatrice hardly seems a likely agent for Claire's salvation. Beatrice was Claire's father's mistress. They spent enjoyable time together until Beatrice's abrupt departure drove the father to kill himself. Unaware of that event, Beatrice returns hoping to see him one last time before she dies, to make amends. Deprived of that opportunity, she manages to break down Claire's understandable antagonism and work out a kind of salvation for both. The drama runs two parallel plot lines: Beatrice's death and Claire's renewed interest in life and the pursuit of pleasure. As both heroines leave their respective pasts the last shot seems their metaphoric standin: Paule notes that the old rowboat that was collecting water is now sinking completely away. The water closes serenely over its ruin.

As close to perfection as you can come

[dave-828-746743 · 10/10 · 25 July 2020]

A beautiful story, beautifully told and filmed. Great acting from the two Catherine's and also from Olivier Gourmet as Paul. Unlike some other reviewers, I had no problems with the believability of the story. Pacing is just how I like it. Leaves a really warm feeling afterwards. Memorable. Would be happy to watch it again in a few years time.

Early termination (so no rating)

[frukuk · 23 March 2020]

I gave this 30 minutes to get going, but there were no signs of anything of interest developing and so early termination seemed both appropriate and ethical.

Perhaps it picks up pace later on, but I just didn't care what happened to either of the two principal characters. (I actually had a sense of deja vu while watching this: perhaps it's that Catherine Deneuve has played several similar characters in this latter part of her career?)

Totally absorbed

[denise-882-139023 · 10/10 · 21 November 2021]

What a wonderful film.

The interplay of the two women is a treat to watch.

Watching the film was like breathing in fresh air, serene with bouts of controlled mania and amusement.

Catherine Frot, at the centre of the film, experiences sheer joy through her work as a midwife; the rest of her life is mostly empty.

After meeting up with Catherine Deneuve, her late father's mistress, after a thirty year break, we see her life changing as she slowly and inevitably falls in love with her new mother figure.

Enjoyed watching this very much, a real unexpected treat.

Deneuve and Frot are fabulous together

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 25 December 2023]

Sage femme (2017) is a French film written and directed by Martin Prevost.

Catherine Deneuve stars as Béatrice Sobo, an elegant woman who seeks out the daughter of her former lover.

Catherine Frot portrays Claire Breton, the daughter, who is a dedicated midwife. Unfortunately, in her city, midwifery is changing from a personal attachment of mother and midwife to a "big box" one-size-fits-all institution.

One plot line is how Claire will deal with this situation. The other plot line is, of course, how Claire and Béatrice will interact in this confrontation, made even more difficult because Béatrice is ill.

Deneuve was 74 when this film was produced, but she looks much younger. However, it's not her beauty that impressed me, but the fact that she can really act. Frot matches her skills, and their interaction is very powerful.

Midwife has a pretty anemic IMDb rating of 6.7. I'm not sure of why the rating is so low. I loved the movie, and rated it 9.