Good movie - almost a documentary - of the life of this leading post war French author and pioneer of honest women's writing about sexuality and life. Without the overt political content of her mentor Simone de Beauvoir. A friend of Albert Camus and Jean Genet. Enjoyed it as much for the history as for the excellent acting.

Interesting movie about Violette Leduc. It shows the difference between Violette and Simone De Beauvoir: two types of women and writers.

Réalisation fade, mais le reste tient la route

Call me sexist but watching a movie about a woman who screams and sobs for over two hours is not my idea of a good time. The woman in question is Violette Leduc, who was one of the first woman writers in France to tackle such charged issues as female sexuality, lesbianism and abortion head on. To be honest, I had never heard of Violette Leduc until I saw this film. I had heard of Simone de Beauvoir, who was, I learned, Violette's mentor and patron. It was de Beauvoir who pushed Leduc to explore her literary voice. Most probably, if it weren't for de Beauvoir providing a combination of encouragement, tough love and money, Leduc would have jumped off the Eiffel Tower or something similar. That's how troubled she was. The film, VIOLETTE, covers a 20-odd year span of Leduc's life from WWII to the mid-1960s. As the film begins, Violette is a black market trader of food in the French countryside along with Jewish writer Maurice Sachs. They are passing themselves off as husband and wife, though Sachs' sexual proclivities clearly favour his own gender. After rebuffing Violette's advances one too many times, Sachs takes off, leaving Violette to fend for herself. We come to learn that others have left Violette before and the pattern will repeat itself, as she is attracted to both men and women she can't have. Violette makes her way to Paris just as the war is coming to an end. While delivering black market meat to a client, she happens upon a copy of de Beauvoir's novel about a ménage-a-trois, and is struck by the size of the work. Until then, she had never considered that a woman could have so much to write about much less having it be published. She immediately reads it and is riveted to it. She quickly gets to work on her own manuscript and tracks de Beauvoir down to give it to her. De Beauvoir is impressed with the work, entitled "In the Prison of Her Skin", and so begins their lifelong relationship. This film is a very competent effort in introducing Leduc to a new generation of readers who, like me, have never heard of her. The problem I had with the film, though, is that it lacks the same passion that Violette (both the person and the writer) had. For much of the film, we watch Violette engage in hysterics either when her friends spur her sexual advances or when her literary works don't get the recognition she thinks they deserve. (If it weren't for de Beauvoir writing the preface for Leduc's most famous work, "The Bastard", she may still be an obscure writer today.) Director Martin Provost says he was introduced to the Leduc's writing while he was working on the film, SÉRAPHINE, which is the story based on the life of French painter Séraphine de Senlis. After reading some of Leduc's works, Provost said knew he had to make a film about her. "To my mind," he said, "Séraphine and Violette are sisters. Their stories are so similar, it's unnerving." Without a doubt, Leduc suffered from low self-esteem. In the film, she comes across as a woman who is always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. If you find that character type interesting, you may like this film. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, it's just too tedious to watch.

El director Martin Provost ("Seraphine") nos presenta otra biografía acerca de una artista olvidada, esta vez Violette Leduc, la escritora protegida por Simone De Beauvoir. Emmanuelle Devos nos entrega una gran actuación interpretando a esta sufrida autora bisexual en busca de afecto y reconocimiento y Sandrine Kiberlain es perfecta como la elegante y siempre puesta en su sitio Simone De Beauvoir. "Violette" no es una cinta tan hermosa o elocuente como "Seraphine", pero es una potente biografía con una magnífica dirección de arte y fotografía.

El director Martin Provost ("Seraphine") nos presenta otra biografía acerca de una artista olvidada, esta vez Violette Leduc, la escritora protegida por Simone De Beauvoir. Emmanuelle Devos nos entrega una gran actuación interpretando a esta sufrida autora bisexual en busca de afecto y reconocimiento y Sandrine Kiberlain es perfecta como la elegante y siempre puesta en su sitio Simone De Beauvoir. "Violette" no es una cinta tan hermosa o elocuente como "Seraphine", pero es una potente biografía con una magnífica dirección de arte y fotografía.

Emmanuelle Devos is good; Sandrine Kiberlain is even almost unrecognizable. The film, however, is rather flat.

I didn't know much about Violette LeDuc, but Emanuelle Devos' performance makes me want to know more about her and read every single word she wrote.

French literary society, red wine, South Bank intellectuals punctuating their existence with references to Sartre who never appears, sexual frustration, crumbling plaster in small Parisian apartments, clouds of Gaulouise smoke and obligatory warm yellow glow filter of rural Provence - French film at a very average pace, well performed but with a music score that sounded like a teenagers whingeing in the corner - 2 and a generous half out of five.

I was struck by how emotionally immature and perverse this woman was. Always picking the wrong object for her affections. The film starts out with her living with a husband who is homosexual. And, from there on it is one unattainable love after another. She actually becomes very angry because she is not loved in return. And, this business about being a bastard is beyond bizarre. Lady, you are alive. You are in good physical health. So, your parents were not married. Get over it. You are not in line to become queen, not even for a day. I felt no sympathy for this creature. I found her "suffering" overwrought and not worthy of compassion. Perhaps a great writer, but definitely a pain in the ass.

An intense film about intense relationships between two intense women.

good 2 hour movie French

I'll say nothing fancy or ambiguous: "Violette" is one of the best French ismovies I've ever seen, right up there with "Place Vendome," "Beneath the Sand," "Rosetta," "Read My Lips," "Brotherhood of the Wolf," "La Nuit de Varennes." The story is about a woman who, abused and neglected as a child, is frantic for love. That is the story, not about a writer, bookworm, intellectual. She is intensely needy for love. This is her story; it's not the story of the ambition of an "engagee intellectual." This person, Violette, is passionate and must come to grips with her own obsessions... It is not the story of a "friendship." Such a boring subject is far from this; neither is it a "Simone de Beauvoir story: either. It is strictly about Violette, always frantic and at lose ends... Her lesbianism, which is not at all shocking, is only incidental to the child's quest for love, which is and is the subject from the very first seconds of the film until the end...

A historically interesting story of a woman finding herself.

Best film of the year!

During the occupation, Violette Leduc(Emmanuelle Devos) works in the black market in order to support her and her lackadaisical friend Maurice(Olivier Sy) in the country. That does not come without its risks as she also spends three days in jail while Maurice idles back at the farmhouse they share. While he placates her anger with a composition notebook she uses to write her thoughts, he makes a break for it. The next time she hears about him is in Paris when he is in deeper trouble but she ignores him in favor of a novel by Simone de Beauvoir(Sandrine Kiberlain) about a menage a trois which inspires Violette to write her own book to give to Simone to publish. "Violette" is a remarkably assured and multi-layered movie. Ironically, it takes its time in recalling the history of somebody who could not stop moving. It definitely helps that Emmanuelle Devos is excellent in portraying such a complex, and at times, difficult person. Violette is also one of several writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Genet(Jacques Bonnaffe) at this period of time who were challenging the more conservative elements of French society through their writing and personal stories, sort of the French Beats if you will but with feminist voices included. In general, this movie also serves as a valuable reminder of how difficult it is for writers to be recognized in any time period, making encouragement one of the most valuable gifts they can receive.

Great performances in this film about Violette Leduc and Simone de Beauvoir's lifelong relationship as writers. Based on a true story.

WOMEN IN UNREQUITED LOVE: My take on the mew French movie about the feminist author Violette Leduc, Violette http://ow.ly/yPtgv

excellent movie kept me captivated all the time.

Frankly I did not expect much and I was pleasantly surprised. The film relates several chapters of Violette Leduc's life, one of France most striking writers in the past century, and in particular her relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. It is not the first time Martin Provost makes a biographical film about a relatively unknown artist. His "Séraphine" focused on the life of Séraphine Louis, a painter in the naïve style. Both actresses were absolutely stunning: Emmanuelle Devos (previously seen in Rois et Reine) for Violette and Sandrine Kiberlain ("Mademoiselle Chambon") for Simone. The role of Violette's mother also, interpreted by Catherine Hiegel ("la vie est un long fleuve tranquille"), will be remembered. I was pleasantly surprised indeed because a lot of research had gone into the making of this film, in particular Violette's friendship with Jean Genet, and the remaking of the amateur film they did together: our writer as a mother pushing a pushchair in which... Jean Genet is the baby! The original is, unfortunately, lost for ever. The complexity of the relationship with Simone de Beauvoir was also quite well related, though I wish they had mentioned the fact Simone used to call Violette 'la femme laide' (the ugly woman) and was perhaps less standoffish than the film was showing. And Violette's character also, she was, as Simone describes it in her books, absolutely unbearable with the girlfriends she was going out with. It was therefore a bit surprising to not see more of this, especially for the author of one of the most beautiful lesbian novels of all times ("Thérèse et Isabelle"). But overall, a good detailed account of one of the most modern French writers of the twentieth century, alongside Genet.