Marguerite

CinemaSerf

Although this is about two women, it could just as readily be a story about two people of any sexual combination where one is an older, lonlier, character. In this case, it’s “Marguerite” (Béatrice Picard) who is beginimg to suffer from kidney failure and receiving daily care from “Rachel” (Sandrine Bisson). After the latter woman takes a phone call, “Marguerite” discovers that it was her girlfriend and that conversation encourages her to reminisce about her own past life, and a special relationship of her own. This is a film about care and tenderness and it’s also quite a poignant one about remembering that older people still need and give affection. They don’t just switch off their emotional and/or physical needs just because they grow grey hair and require a Zimmer frame to get about. This handles those requirements and, to an extent, their fulfilment in a gently unsentimental fashion with a pleasing paucity of dialogue compensated by some charming facial expressions from a Picard who delivers quite thoughtfully.