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Movie review / ‘Deux (Two Of Us)’ (M)

“Deux (Two Of Us)” (M) *** and a half

SINCE its first release in 2019, the feature film debut of writer/director Filippo Meneghetti has garnered a string of award nominations (including nomination as France’s official entry at this year’s Oscars) and wins, but not a big box office result. Its subject remains controversial despite relaxations of recent years – women who love women. 

Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Mado (Martine Chevallier) each own an individual apartment at opposite ends of the building’s top floor corridor. Friends, neighbours don’t know that at nightfall, Nina comes to Mado’s bed and returns to her own at daybreak. 

The couple are planning to sell up and move to Rome. At a family dinner, when Mado plans to break the news to her divorced daughter Anne (Lea Drucker) and son Frederic (Jerome Varanfrain), she freezes up and cannot get the words out. Her children remain convinced that their late father was the love of her life. Nina inadvertently learns of Mado’s hesitation through a chance encounter with the latter’s real-estate broker (Herve Sogne) and loses her temper on the street, spitting out that she’s tired of excuses and that the only person still uptight about a pair of old lesbians is Mado. 

When Mado suffers a stroke that puts her in a catatonic condition for most of the rest of the film – Chevallier’s portrayal of that is nothing short of marvellous – Nina feels that her anger might have triggered the incident. 

While she deals with the heartsickness of sudden separation, it falls to her to care for the only person she loves. The small number of other people in their lives doesn’t make that simple. 

It’s great acting from both women. The story’s deep human tenderness should be having helpful effect on public attitudes about lesbian women. So it’s sad that, according to IMDb, the film’s cumulative worldwide gross to date is a mere $255,782. It deserves to be more widely seen. 

At Dendy, Palace Electric

 

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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