«Madeleine Collins: deception is only appearance

Can adultery and the phantasm of the double life still be (re)visited in cinema? Antoine Barraud answers in the affirmative, engaging viewers in a thriller where madness lurks, and Virginie Efira revives the theme of identity disorder. explored in Sybil. She delivers a brilliant performance as a spirited, opinionated woman.

During the week, she calls herself Judith Fauvet. She lives in France, has two teenage children and is married to Melvil (Bruno Salomone), a prestigious conductor. Their life as a couple is punctuated by his many concerts abroad, and he is currently awaiting international promotion. For the past three years, Judith has also been an avid business traveler. She travels to Rome, Italy and Spain for translations and UN conferences. However, this lifestyle hides another reality, that of a little girl and her father Abdel (Quim Gutiérrez) living in Switzerland. Abdel has grown weary of the situation, and his behavior towards Judith is starting to become distant. Will the deceptions and the two identities be able to coexist for much longer?

A repetition? No, a detour

Nothing new in the cinema galaxy. The theme of adultery and double life is widely present in fiction films. It is usually exploited in a way that runs counter to Madeleine Collins, It's the male protagonist who's responsible for, and the actor in, the adultery. A grieving housewife, the sudden appearance of a babysitter or a new colleague... and the magic triangulation appears.

Of course, unfaithful wives are not to be outdone. In the collective imagination, the posture of the adulteress is symbolized by the figure of the femme fatale, a stereotypical character from film noir and its contemporary reflection in neo-noir. More recently, large-scale productions have also evoked this figure. For example, Rosamund Pike plays the vengeful heroine in Gone Girl by David Fincher. The portrayal of this character, an endearing bitch and manipulative vigilante, has been at the heart of numerous debates concerning a misogynistic discourse and projection of women...

However, it's on a completely different terrain that Madeleine Collins engages the viewer. The film blithely goes beyond gender issues and stereotypes to deconstruct audience expectations.

The thread of perdition and madness

Indeed, the whole beginning of the narrative has a taste of déjà-vuJudith's lies and comings and goings deceive not only those around her, but also the viewer. What at first appears to be a passionate relationship ready to implode is revealed in a perspective renewed and transformed by the clues scattered throughout the fiction; layers of reading are superimposed. The clues and the film's progression then reveal the strings of this romance between France and Switzerland from a family angle, where each person's responsibilities are merely the consequences of the others' actions. Only the viewer and Judith are ultimately fooled by their own expectations. The protagonist's duplicity is transformed into a quest; that of a mother overwhelmed by the torment of the burdens placed on her condition and duty.

As for the title, its meaning is revealed to us at the very end of the film, when the masks and unspoken words are broken. Madeleine Collins, like the viewer, has only to reinvent herself in another existence.