JEUNE FEMME: Laetitia Dosch Carries This Eccentric Comedy-Drama

As Jeune Femme opens, the thirty-something Paula (Laetitia Dosch) is left reeling from a recent break up. Her ten year relationship with artist Joachim (Grégoire Monsaingeon) is over and she is left trying to pick up the pieces of her life. She finds herself not only without a love but without a home and without a living. She has also gained an unwanted pet, her ex’s cat, which she reluctantly looks after in the hope that it will maintain her some link with Joachim.

A European Cousine Of Frances Ha

Paula is a spiky character, unable to hold down a friendship, and therefore has few places to turn when her life falls apart. Paula is left with no choice but to hop from sofa to sofa across Paris whilst she tries to hold in the urge to go and scream at the door of her ex’s apartment. Jeune Femme sees Paula learn and grow.

At one point she even establishes a friendship with Souleymane Seye Ndiaye’s kind-hearted security guard Ousmane. However really, from the very beginning, as we see her venting and shouting at a doctor trying to help her, it is clear that this is no sappy rom-com.

Comparisons have been drawn with 2012’s Frances Ha, but although both feature couch-surfing eternally lost women suffering quarter-life crises, the two movies are very different beasts. There’s a certain harshness to Jeune Femme, an unforgiving nature that rarely penetrates Frances’ more uplifting tone.

The situation in Jeune Femme is that much direr, and Dosch’s Paula has an understandable grittiness to her. It does still remain very much a comedy at heart, though amongst this darkness with Paula as its eccentric yet unpleasant core.

An Outstanding Lead Performance

Where the comparison does ring true is in the two lead roles. Like Greta Gerwig as the titular Frances, Laetitia Dosch carries Jeune Femme expertly. From the very beginning she outlines the flawed nature of this woman and asks us to accept her as she is. Her Paula is immensely watchable if not always likeable, which is fortuitous since she dominates the movie, front and centre of every scene.

She may decide to leave the unwanted cat in a cemetery so he can live the rest of his life as a stray, but when the rain begins to fall she begrudgingly steps outside to retrieve him. She may lie and steal, but Dosch lays Paula’s feelings so bare that we understand her motivations and we understand why she is like she is even though we don’t know her full story.

The film’s great strength is in this casting of Dosch, who knows inherently how to imbue a character with complexity with only the slightest emotion or delivery of a line.

There are loose ends galore here. It is an untidy film about an untidy life. But that is the charm of this little film. It’s a snapshot, after all, of this woman’s messy life. We know little about the past, just a break up and a history of family problems, and the future is just as open to interpretation. A beau and a sunset and a nice little ribbon just do not fit this film or its lead character. It’s chaotic and completely endearing because of it.

Director Léonor Sérraille allows the film to bask in these sometimes unpleasant or uncomfortable moments of real life struggle, rather than focus on the set piece reconciliations and sex scenes that lesser films indulge in. We know what happens in those moments but they are extraneous here. It is the lead up or the aftermath that is most fascinating in Paula’s story.

The film is not without its hiccups though. Whilst it for the most part strives for originality, with each complex characterisation and friendship a breath of fresh air, it does have a few uncharacteristic moments of cliché. A late in the day twist for example strikes a little false and feels out of place. This is a very small misstep though which barely affects the enjoyment of the rest of the movie.

Jeune Femme: A Deserved Award Winner

For the most part Jeune Femme is a wonderful look at a very modern life. Writer and director Léonor Sérraille deservedly picked up the Camera d’Or (the award for best first feature) for the movie at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. With Jeune Femme, she has captured an at times painfully real story, with a brilliantly crafted and unapologetically brash character at the heart of it. Both Sérraille and Dosch are certainly artists to keep a close eye on.

Have you managed to catch a screening of Jeune Femme? If so what did you think? Let us know in the comments below. 

Jeune Femme is out now in UK cinemas and on VOD via Curzon Home Cinema.