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Thérèse Desqueyroux

  • Film
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
Thérèse
Thérèse
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

There’s something almost annoyingly tasteful about this adaptation of the 1927 French novel by François Mauriac. It’s too classy and restrained to unlock the emotions of husband-poisoner Thérèse, played here by Audrey Tautou. Thérèse is one of literature’s feisty females – born without the normal gene. (See also Anne Shirley in ‘Anne of Green Gables’, and Emma Bovary.) She thinks too much, reads too much and smokes like a chimney. Her family owns half the forests around Bordeaux. And in the tradition of old money, Thérèse is married off like a thoroughbred racehorse to the neighbouring landowner’s son – thick-as-a-plank Bernard (Gilles Lellouche).

Thérèse thinks marriage will cure her of the thoughts racing round her head. But after a few years she’s reaching for the arsenic. Tautou gives a self-possessed, complex performance as Thérèse – we sense a dam-burst of rage and boredom behind her mask. Otherwise, Claude Miller’s final film (he died shortly after making it) is a tad on the stiff side.

Written by Cath Clarke

Release Details

  • Rated:12A
  • Release date:Friday 7 June 2013
  • Duration:110 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Claude Miller
  • Cast:
    • Audrey Tautou
    • Gilles Lellouche
    • Anaïs Demoustier
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