The Reader (1988 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Reader (1983, La Lectrice) is a French film directed by Michel Deville and based on a novella by Raymond Jean. One of Deville's comedies, The Reader was his biggest international success. It tells the story of a woman (Miou-Miou), who finds work reading novels for people but gradually finds herself unwittingly attracting a clientèle of fetishists who enjoyed being read to.
Plot
Constance is a young French woman who is dissatisfied with her mundane life but has a talent for reading stories to others. As the movie opens, she is reading a book called La Lectrice to her boyfriend, in which the main character, a woman named Marie, reads literature to others for a living. She becomes engrossed in the book to the point that she begins imagining herself as Marie: Constance and Marie are played by Miou-Miou, and the movie weaves back and forth between their stories.
Marie embarks on her new profession with gusto. As she reads to her clients, all of whom are seeking a little more than the solace of literature, she works a fantastical transformation on them. Her clients include the widow of a Marxist general (María Casares), a nervous businessman (Patrick Chesnais), a retired magistrate, and a handicapped teenage boy. Soon the clients' friends and families become involved, as does her professor (Christian Blanc). The general's widow's maidservant and the boy's friends from school become affected by the readings, and Constance has an affair with the businessman. Books read include The Lover (by Marguerite Duras, read to the sexually frustrated businessman), and the works of Marquis de Sade (read to the judge and his libertine friends).
Cast
- Miou-Miou as Constance / Marie
- Régis Royer as Éric
- Maria Casarès as The General's widow
- Patrick Chesnais as The CEO
- Pierre Dux as Magistrat
- Christian Ruché as Jean / Philippe
- Brigitte Catillon as Éric's mother
- Marianne Denicourt as Bella B.
- Charlotte Farran as Coralie
- Clotilde de Bayser as Coralie's mother
- Jean-Luc Boutté as The Inspector
- Simon Eine as The professor
- Maria de Medeiros as The nurse
- André Wilms as The man of the Saint-Landry street
- Sylvie Laporte as Françoise
- Léo Campion as The grandfather
See also
