Themes: Starting Over, Women's Friendship, Unrequited Love
Main Cast: Nathalie Baye, Bulle Ogier, Samuel Le Bihan, Jacques Bonnaffé, Mathilde Seigner
Release Year: 1999
Country: FR
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
A visually stylish comedy with dramatic overtones from director Tonie Marshall, Vénus Beauté (Institut) looks at the lives of three women who work at a small but successful beauty salon. Angele Nathalie Baye is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking for companionship without commitment, even when it comes knocking. Her co-worker Samantha (Mathilde Seigner) has more boyfriends than she knows what to do with, and Marie (Audrey Tautou), the youngest of the group, is still learning the ropes of both love and beauty treatment. Fans of classic French cinema will want to keep an eye peeled for guest appearances from Emmanuelle Riva, Micheline Presle and Edith Scob. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Tonie Marshall's engrossing film is a rare glimpse into the ups and downs of the life of a single middle-aged woman. Nathalie Baye stars as a forty-something beautician in a small salon, whose romantic life consists of a series of one-night stands. Even when a younger man Samuel Le Bihan becomes obsessed with her, she insists on her independence. As always, it seems that only the French care enough to make a truthful film about this kind of subject. In the Hollywood of yore this would have been made as a weepy melodrama, and in the Tinseltown of today it would be turned into a tale of female empowerment, but obviously in France it's possible to make a wise, slightly melancholy comedy about the quotidian adversity of one woman's life. Despite the script's wit, a painful morning-after scene is typical of the director's keen sense of the kind of cutting humiliations that can befall a woman of a certain age. And in the gossip and unfolding mini-dramas of the workplace, the film makes clear how all of the women must struggle to achieve the kind of relationships they want, regardless of age and attractiveness. Baye is wonderful in this part (though, even at 52, perhaps too attractive to play the everywoman) and Bulle Ogier, that other icon of French cinema, excels as the salon owner. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Angèle is a 40 year old beautician who works at the title establishment in Paris. She has been an orphan from the age of eight, her father having killed her mother for suspected infidelity, and then killed himself when her infidelity was proved untrue. She picks up men to have short sex flings, but no longer believes in love, having hurt her former boyfriend, Jacques, whom she occasionally contacts out of loneliness, but who is never available at the same time as her. An unkempt younger man, Antoine, sees her at a cafe as she is being dumped by her latest fling, and falls in love with her. He stands outside the beauty shop to watch for her, and when he finally meets her he declares his love for her, but she does not immediately return his feelings. Also, Antoine reveals that despite his feelings for her, he is engaged, but feels he is drifting away from her. However, despite her refusal to believe in love, she gradually falls for him.
Venus Beauty Institute is run by Nadine, and Angèle's co-workers include Samantha, who has a string of dates and gives Angèle their descriptions, and Marie, the youngest who is still learning the ropes. The co-workers' love lives contrast with Angèle's. Marie has as her client an aging pilot, who had been burnt and had his face reconstructed from his late wife's skin. The pilot wants Marie to come to his house, which she eventually does, watched by Angèle and Antoine. Angèle is concerned that Marie is too naïve and that the pilot invited her to his house to seduce her. As Marie and the pilot kiss each other, Angèle and Antoine also start kissing.
Christmas is approaching, and Angèle goes to her aunts in Poitiers. Antoine had revealed that he is a sculptor, and had been commissioned to do an altarpiece for the cathedral there. She goes the cathedral to see the artwork, but changes her mind when an old friend recognizes her. Returning to Paris, Angèle goes to the hospital to visit Samantha, who had drugged herself. Samantha reveals that Nadine is starting a new store, and that she found a new girl to temporarily replace Samantha. However, the new girl, Evelyne, turns out to be a disaster, wanting to arrange the products by colour rather than function, and eventually quits.
Meanwhile, Antoine's fiancée had followed him and seen him leave the store with Angèle. She goes to the store as a client, and confides to Angèle that her fiancé is seeing someone else, but she thinks he still loves her. Later, when Antoine takes Angèle shopping, Antoine's fiancée comes into the store; Angèle sees them together and thinks Antoine has betrayed her. She phones Antoine to tell her call their relationship off. To make amends, as Angèle is left to close the store on New Year's Eve, Antoine comes to the store with a present. It is a new dress. Antoine's fiancée sees this and comes into the store with a gun, but when she fires all she succeeds in hitting is the lights. As the sparks fly, Antoine and Angèle kiss each other.
