Search - Amour de Femme on DVD

Finally, a romantic LESBIAN movie !!

K. E. Fox | Austin, Texas | 02/16/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After a 12 year dry spell, I finally found an lesbian movie that I could REALLY ENJOY!!! (This hasn't happened since, "When Night is Falling.")

Amour de Femme (Love of Women) is about a Parisian women named Jeanne who seems to have it all, namely she is good looking, has a fabulous looking husband, an adorable and loving kid, and a very successful career as an osteopath. The actress who plays Jeanne (the lead character) looks like an amalgamation of Sean Young, Phoebe Cates, Teri Hatcher (brown hair and eyes) and has the amazing ability to appear very different (facial wise) in every shot she's in. I've never seen an actress that has the ability to look different in every shot. The actress who plays Jeanne is about 6 ft. tall and lanky (I LOVE TALL WOMEN! )

The film begins with Jeanne and her hubby David attending a birthday party at a bar in Paris. As soon as they walk in, David quickly abandons his wife to hang out with his buddies, leaving Jeanne to fend for herself. She looks alone and uncomfortable in the packed room and the viewer gets the impression that Jeanne being ditched by her husband is a very common occurrence. However, what next happens will change Jeanne's life forever. As the party progresses, a short female dancer comes out onto a well lighted stage in the bar and starts dancing very provocatively for the audience. She has been hired to entertain the birthday boy and very quickly strips off most of her clothing (besides a fancy bra and panties.) In the meantime, Jeanne is watching the dancer avidly from the shadows - a first with a blank face and moments later a smile appears on her face ... After the show, we see Jeanne aimlessly walking by herself through a crowd of people, looking bored and lonely. When she walks through a festooned entryway of the bar, she immediately feels someone behind her, startling her. She quickly turns around and she sees it's the dancer. From that point on (about 3 minutes into the film) to the end of the movie, Jeanne and Marie can't take their eyes off each other and form a mutual admiration society. The looks shared between these two women are so intense and erotic, that the nap hairs on my neck stand up every time I watch this movie. Jeanne sees Marie as the embodiment of passion, energy, and freedom and we are along for the ride as she explores her new found passion for a Marie. This is one of the first lesbian movies where I've seen desire, tenderness, and caring overtly demonstrated between two women over the course of the entire movie. I also thought that the dialogue in this movie was realistic, romantic, and compelling.

HOWEVER, I want to add that I DO NOT think Amour de Femme is a perfect movie, because it isn't. The music soundtrack of this movie is supremely annoying, distracting, very loud and inappropriate (like a previous reviewer said, it sounds like a soundtrack from a porno movie), especially at the expense of hearing the dialogue between the characters (thank God for subtitles!!) It also cheapens the intense scenes of emotion between the two women. In addition, both the women in this film smoke, and you can tell they both do this in real life by their grayish teeth. I guess they never heard of teeth whitening in France. (I'm picky I know - so sue me!) Additionally, some of the camera work in the film is very mediocre. I was repeatedly distracted when the camera went for a close up shot of an actor when the camera should have panned back so the audience could see both the emotional reactions of the women. There are also several scenes where the viewer can only see a chin or mouth of one of the actresses, and the full face of the other, leaving the reaction of the other actress a complete mystery. I also think the actress who plays Jeanne is MUCH better looking and a MUCH better actor than the female who plays Marie. I dearly wish they would have chosen a better looking and acting actress for her part, instead of one who smirks through most of her scenes. Be that as it may, if you are looking for a romantic LESBIAN film, with realistic dialogue, scenes of intense, tender and erotic emotion, and one short love scene, this film is for you. Despite my criticisms, I really enjoyed this film and it's a definite keeper.
"

A beautiful love story between two women

S. Stinson | Oklahoma USA | 03/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Amour de Femme" is one of those rare movies that are moody, subtle, and yet powerful all at the same time. A French film with English subtitles, "Amour de Femme" tells the story of Jeanne, a 35-year-old masseuse living in Paris, who has spent her entire life making other people feel better. Attending a party with David, her husband of seven years, Jeanne instantly connects with Marie, a dancer performing at the party. They spend the evening conversing about their love of dance, something Jeanne used to do, but has given up as her life took a different turn. Vowing to begin dancing again, Jeanne decides to take one of Marie's classes, and rediscovers not only the passion that's been missing from her life, but that she has feelings for this mesmerizing woman.

Although Jeanne's past is never explained, one gets the sense of a life of quiet desperation. Jeanne seems to be happy on the surface, but dig a little deeper and one finds a woman whose passion for life has fizzled out. She goes through the motions, living each day as she is expected--dutiful wife to David, loving mother to young Louis--until she meets Marie. Intrigued by the vitality of this woman, Jeanne undergoes a transformation that, at first, she finds confusing and frightening. Marie makes no secret of her attraction to women--and to Jeanne--and Jeanne, while drawn to her, struggles with conflicting emotions, eventually running back home to the safety of the known.

The distance between Jeanne and her husband continues to grow, and Jeanne finds herself thinking of Marie more and more; the quiet desperation invading her every waking moment. She again finds herself at Marie's class, this time taking her up on an offer for dinner. They go to Marie's apartment where she begins to prepare dinner for the two, when Jeanne boldly decides to ask Marie to kiss her. The tender kiss in turn leads to a night of lovemaking between the two. They continue having clandestine rendezvous for several weeks, and one can see the joy growing in Jeanne's life at her newfound feelings.

It's only a matter of time before Jeanne finds herself in love with Marie, torn between the life she had and the one she is creating with Marie. The ensuing drama that occurs between Jeanne and David as she takes steps that will radically change her life, are intense and passionate. During the next few scenes, we see an entirely different Jeanne as she makes up her mind, finds herself, and makes decisions that will change her life forever.

"Amour de Femme" stars Helene Fillieres as Jeanne. At first, I thought the actress portraying Marie was very short, but further investigation revealed that Fillieres is actually six-feet tall! She reminds me of a young Gia Carangi in many shots, having that androgynous beauty about her. Fillieres, as Jeanne, is a formidable screen presence: her stormy beauty simultaneously suggesting the terror with which she at first cowers from love's promise, then lunges at it hungrily, epitomizing Jeanne's greatest question in life: who is this woman that I am becoming?

Raffaela Anderson portrayal of Marie is the very picture of courageous self-determination, whether romancing Jeanne in quiet conversation, or wildly dancing with a commanding ferocity.

I found "Amour de Femme" to be highly reminiscent of another favorite movie of mine, "When Night is Falling." Both of these movies tend toward subtlety and imagery to tell their stories instead of hand-holding the viewer with endless dialogue and background explanations. If you like your movies spelled out in great detail, you probably won't like "Amour de Femme" or "When Night is Falling." "Amour de Femme" is the kind of movie that you think about, watch again, and enjoy even more the second time around as you capture the nuance of the wonderful performance.

One thing to remember when watching this film is that it is a foreign film and not necessarily up to Hollywood cinematic standards. The musical soundtrack leaves quite a bit to be desired, bordering on tastelessly pornographic, and the coloring of the movie tends toward dark and moody.

Nevertheless, if you can get past the technical inadequacies of the film, you will find yourself immersed in a beautiful, moving love story about the "love of women." "Amour de Femme" is a movie to be remembered."

Tender, somewhat predictable love story between two women!

Pen Name | United States | 06/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In a nutshell: Beautiful Jeanne (that's her face you see on the box cover) is smitten by a younger, much shorter, and racially-mixed dancer named Marie. The two women have a love affair, much to the dismay of Jeanne's husband David.

There's not much in the way of sex scenes (or even nudity) in this film, but what's there is very well done and very erotically charged. The casting and production values are all excellent, but if you're looking for explicit sexual encounters involving women-with-women you'll be disappointed.

I liked this one, but I'd probably have enjoyed an NC-17 version of this film even more.

"

Finally a good movie!

jessica | california | 07/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's really hard to find a good lesbian movie out there, and i was sure that this movie would fall into the typical movie where they fall in love but then society breaks them apart, but Amour de Femme was much more creative than that. It deals with real world issues of love and devotion as well as showing the conflictive side of an affair, especially when society forbids it. I thought the music wasn't as annoying as everyone says it is because the dialogue and acting is so provacative and well thought out, that the music is not even imortant. I would def recommend this, i have watched it 3 times and it still feels like the first time. see it!"