Abuse of Weakness
Abuse of Weakness (French: Abus de faiblesse) is a 2013 semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Catherine Breillat. The film had its world premiere on 6 September 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival.[3] In the U.S. the film was acquired by Strand Releasing and given a release in December 2014.[4]
| Abuse of Weakness | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Catherine Breillat |
| Produced by | Jean-François Lepetit |
| Screenplay by | Catherine Breillat |
| Based on | Abuse of Weakness by Catherine Breillat |
| Starring | Isabelle Huppert Kool Shen |
| Music by | Didier Lockwood |
| Cinematography | Alain Marcoen |
| Edited by | Pascal Chavance |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Rézo Films (France) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | France Germany Belgium |
| Language | French |
| Budget | €4 million[1] |
| Box office | $171,660[2] |
Plot
Maud Schoenberg (Isabelle Huppert) suffers a cerebral hemorrhage that leaves her paralysed on one half of her body. After a year of intense therapy Maud, a director, begins to work on a new project. After seeing an interview with a con-man, Vilko Piran (Kool Shen), she immediately asks him to star as the lead in her film, about a lower-class man who falls in love with a famous actress, eventually beating her to death. Vilko accepts but insists that he see Maud as much as possible before filming begins.
Cast
- Isabelle Huppert as Maud Schoenberg
- Kool Shen as Vilko Piran
- Laurence Ursino as Andy
- Christophe Sermet as Ezzé
- Ronald Leclercq as Gino
- Fred Lebelge as TV presenter
- Tristan Schotte as Antoine
- Daphné Baiwir as Hortense
- Dimitri Tomsej as Louis
- Nicolas Steil as Louis' father
- Jean-François Lepetit as Jean-Paul
Production
In 2007, Breillat met notorious conman Christophe Rocancourt, and offered him a leading role in a movie that she was planning to make, based on her own novel Bad Love, and starring Naomi Campbell.[5] Soon after, she gave him €25,000 to write a screenplay titled La vie amoureuse de Christophe Rocancourt (The Love Life of Christophe Rocancourt), and over the next year and a half, would give him loans totalling an additional €678,000.[6] In 2009, a book written by Breillat was published, in which she alleged that Rocancourt had taken advantage of her diminished mental capacity, as she was still recovering from her stroke.[7] The book was entitled Abus de faiblesse, a French legal term usually translated as "abuse of weakness" and was the basis for the movie of the same title.[8]
Reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 85%, based on 34 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Abuse of Weakness' fact-based plot proves that truth can be stranger than fiction -- and provide grist for compelling character studies."[9] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 77, based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10]
References
- "Abus de faiblesse". JP's Box-Office.
- "Abuse of Weakness". Box Office Mojo.
- "Abuse of Weakness (Abus de faiblesse): Toronto Review". THR. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- Lindsay, Taylor. "Exclusive: Strand Releasing to Distribute Catherine Breillat's Personal Drama 'Abuse of Weakness'". Retrieved 4 November 2015.
- Secher, Benjamin (5 April 2008). "Catherine Breillat: 'All true artists are hated'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- de Mallevoüe, Delphine (18 February 2012). "Christophe Raconcourt sort de prison et prépare un livre". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- Groves, Don (9 August 2010). "Breillat's new twist on Sleeping Beauty". SBS. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- Roxo, Alexandra (7 July 2011). "A Conversation with Catherine Breillat (THE SLEEPING BEAUTY)". Hammer to Nail. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- "Abuse of Weakness (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- "Abuse of Weakness Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 1 December 2019.