Augustine by Alice Winocour

Augustine is a fantastic debut for French director Alice Winocour and there are many reasons for it. It is not easy to avoid clichés when making a period drama, especially for a female director. Casting a known and experienced actor, Vincent Lindon, alongside the french singer Soko who although less experienced represents a fantastic choice for the role of hysteria-stricken Augustine, the couple creates a magical duo under Winocours direction. The noble and perverse Charcot and the beautiful but strong Augustine make for a story of suppressed sexual tension that grips the viewer from start to finish. The story of Augustine, the favourite patient of Charcot and his key to fame and glory in the medical society, is a story with many sides, there is the personal, the passionate and the social dimensions that come together in the relationship between the two. Using original means of storytelling, Winocour has added some documentary style interviews with Charcot’s patients into the story line. These interruptions are interesting breathers between the episodes of the film, but also serve as an overarching historical back-story to the phenomenon of hysteria and the practices of the historical Charcot. There is a scene in the film that is very powerful: it is the play with the monkey, the first moment for Charcot and Augustine on the borders of freeing their passion. It is a beautifully directed mise en scene where the smallest of details from light to facial expressions come together with the core sensibility and messages of the story. And such is the rest of the film: a delicate, powerful and graceful dance.

by Greta Varts