Chloé Robichaud’s Sundance awardwinning comedy, “Two Women,” at the M.V. Film Center starting May 15, regales us with a tale that proves life, and certainly sex, is never simple.
As the Canadian French-language film opens, we see two women staring out their windows in a large condominium complex, overlooking a snowy suburban landscape. We first meet Violette (Laurence Leboeuf), a young new mother, who insists to her husband Benoit (Félix Moati) that the sound of a crow she keeps hearing in their apartment is, in fact, two people on the other side of the wall having sex.
Convinced that her neighbor is an “auditory exhibitionist,” Violet confronts the woman of the couple next door. Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman), a mother of a 10-year-old son, insists it couldn’t be her and her partner, David (Mani Soleymanlou), since they haven’t had sex for years.
The incident sparks something in Florence, however, and she tells David she’s going to stop taking her antidepressants to boost her sex drive. David insists she is unpredictable without her meds. Florence asks if he is talking about her drinking, listening to music at 4 am, and being amazing at pool. He points out that she also threw herself in front of a car. Florence responds, “I know it looked pathetic from the outside, but from the inside it was fun … It was liberating.”
To excuse his own low libido, David, who prefers to work on his greenhouse rather than engage with Florence, starts taking Florence’s medication unprescribed, so she believes that’s why he doesn’t want to make love. “I think our relationship works better when one of us is on antidepressants,” he tells her. Florence, once off her meds, soon discovers her insatiable desire for sex, luring handymen in for the deed on the sly.
Violette is likewise unfulfilled in her sexless marriage. Benoit blames her disinterest in making love on breastfeeding their newborn, thus justifying his affair with a work colleague.
Violette and Florence become fast friends, bonding over the tedium of motherhood. Florence informs Violette that men designed monogamy to keep women in their place. Soon after, Violette stops breastfeeding, and finds liberation by following in Florence’s footsteps.
The film is full of the antics of these two mothers who refuse to settle for stagnant lives and prescribed roles, instead breaking convention to pursue the joy they need to feel fulfilled. We also follow the men’s lives, who can’t help but be affected by the changes in the women they live with. David, aware of Florence’s infidelities, says at one point to Benoit, “In the ’70s and ’80s, women took pills for their nerves, drank afternoon peach schnapps, just to endure their conditions as housewives. Why not take antidepressants to keep my family together?”
The film, a frisky remake of Claude Fournier’s influential 1970 comedy, “Deux femmes en or” (Two Women in Gold), is full of spice that simultaneously touches on affairs, motherhood, desire, and the pursuit of joy over conventional expectations.
“Two Women,” at the M.V. Film Center starting May 15. For more information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.