Overview
Curiosa, a 2019 film by Lou Jeunet, is a French drama that is defined by its sensual characteristics and introspective views. The film is set during Paris’s Belle Époque and is a period of time where one’s social status was very critical. During this time, the film explores multiple themes such as liberation, literature, and the evolution of a person. It focuses on Marie de Régnier’s life, who is played by Noémie Merlant, and is inspired by letters and historical figures. It tells a story of a ménage-à-trois of Marie, her famous spouse, and her muse – Pierre Louÿs played by Benjamin Lavernhe. Curiosa is about a woman who is discovering herself via art and illicit romance, set in cafés, salons, and the creative circles of the time.
Plot Synopsis
The story starts in late the 1800s where Pierre Louÿs, a famous poet, was known for his work on love and romance, marries to Marie de Régnier, who is an eloquent young woman of aristocratic roots. Marie is reflective of an idealist person and hopes to attain a conventional life. However, she soon starts feeling overshadowed by her husband’s fame and is trapped in a life of perpetual expectations.
While attending Pierre’s salon, Marie encounters Renée Vivien, an expatriated British poet vivified for her lesbianism and her frenetic, self-referential verse penned in French. Vivien is striking and radiantly self-absorbed, utterly devoted to her love for women. Marie is captivated by Renée’s fierce honesty, feeling for the first time drawn to the echo of her own imprisoned longings.
What starts with mutual emotional and physical flirtation Renée and Marie deepen into an affair. They dive into poetry and eroticism, reveling in sharings of verses and dreams of literary greatness, photographs, and promises of immortality. For the first time in her life, Marie is cherished, feels liberated, and profoundly seen.
Pierre and Parisian society’s gaze, however, has other calculations for the two women’s defiance of social norms. Pierre, in a mix of vengeful and mock-protective pride, permits the affair to carry on, as the couple’s scandalousness deflects suspicion about his own secrets. He quietly hooks onto the residual dominion of controlling Marie’s creative life. This structural conflict proves troublesome.
With a tightening jealous grip on the affair. Renée escalates the erratic displays to Marie, scrambling to defy the boundaries Boston has edified and Marie’s reluctance to activism. Caught up the web of men’s gaze derived power, social norms, pretentious respectability, and upward social mobility, Marie becomes detached and estranged from her own voice as she becomes emotionally tethered to rendez-vous.
The film ends with emotional fragmentation. Renée sinks deeper into self-destructive habits, Pierre pulls back his support completely, and Marie must make an irreversible decision: leave her freedom and lover to return to restrained success, or fully embrace boundless artistic and sexual freedom with a heavy personal price.
Main Cast & Performances
Noémie Merlant as Marie de Régnier
Merlant embodies and interprets Marie with equilibrium to give her a blend of subtle strength and shyness. She manifests the evolution from a poet’s wife to an independent writer in the flow of her gaze, her posture, and her poetry.
Izïa Higelin as Renée Vivien
Higelin’s Renée is fierce, headstrong, and sorrowful all at once. She captures the essence of the fervor of lesbian love and the despair that follows with marginalization. She manifests a spirit that is both liberating and all-consuming.
Benjamin Lavernhe as Pierre Louÿs
Through Lavernhe, Pierre emanates cultured charm and subtle manipulation. He embodies a dual nature that is both supportive and domineering, quietly controlling Marie’s letters and literary destiny.
Supporting roles include the regulars of the salon which were editors, publishers and other aristocrats. They emphasize the scandal of the relationship being considered ‘curiosa’ in a society that is obsessed with propriety.
Themes and Analysis
- Female Desire and Autonomy
Curiosa depicts a woman’s attempt to reclaim her body and her expressions. Marie’s sexual and literary self-discovery happens simultaneously. Her defiance embodies choices that challenge marriage and society’s expectations.
- Love as Creation and Conflict
Renée defends love as being as significant as poetry. However, love has elements of both construction and destruction. Their relationship demonstrates how these two opposing forces intertwine. Their intimacy, born out of artistic partnership, often turns into emotional brutality.
- Art and Authorship
Marie starts her writing journey as a monitored scriber, bound to her husband’s authority. When she tries to reclaim her narrative, she faces further oppression and blame for morally impure behavior. The film explores the themes of authorship and anonymity, particularly focusing on the women of that time.
- Public versus Private Persona
Marie’s and Renée’s public and private personas differ. The public has the joy of attending private salons, while the latter has rules to follow. The evolution of the film depicts the growing struggle between private truth and public expectation.
Visual Style and Direction
Director Lou Jeunet’s painterly approach gives Curiosa social and emotional intimacy. Framing the film within illuminated gardens, mirrors, and candle lit rooms creates a juxtaposition to the sharp pastels and deep shadowed hues.
For intimate scenes, cinematographer Léo Hinstin employs naturalistic lighting, long takes, and fixed framing to create a sense of emotional déjà vu and suffocation. The juxtaposition of glimmering chandeliers and forest clearings cuts showcasing the freedom and captivity elude to a deeper sense of the performance.
As costume design underscores the feminine of the fin-de-siècle, corsets with puffed sleeves and lace are revealed. As Marie’s emotional landscape transforms into a tempest of turmoil, her clothes mirror her state, evolving from strict formal structures to loose, flowing fabrics that suggest mobility and abandon.
Silence and expression are lent the space to fill, while soft piano and violin accompany love scenes, demonstrating that even music can be dramatic, but reserved.
Critical Reception and Legacy
As Curiosa premiered, it was lauded for showcasing a woman’s perspective through lyrical storytelling. The emotional nuance and faith in the leading performances, alongside a decision to avoid dramatic excess or sensationalism, garnered admiration. While a few considered the pacing to be slow, and a handful posed questions regarding the historical accuracy, there was a prevalent consensus that Jeanne’s debut eloquently revealed and celebrated the erased female voices.
In the conversations surrounding queer representation, the film gained attention for depicting a time and a space in which lesbianism was rarely the focus of interest. By referring to forbidden literature, erotic curiosities, and censored knowledge, Curiosa serves as a dramatic statement on literary freedom paired with erotic visibility.
While not a mainstream hit, the movie found its audience in art-house screenings and even in academia, where it was analyzed in the context of women writers in history, the suppression of queer romance, and the politics surrounding authorship.
Conclusion
Curiosa encapsulates the haunting and sensual depiction of a woman coming alive through the dual lenses of art and forbidden love. It skillfully uses visual composition and performance alongside rich thematic relevance to transform Marie de Régnier from a mere historical footnote to a defiant figure who embodied curiosity, desire, and fierce autonomy.
Balancing the interplay among love and power, art and legacy, Curiosa poses the thought-provoking question of who gets the privilege to document history while others are invisibly removed, and how the very act of desire can catalyze creative freedom.
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