Darling

Catherine is a woman for whom no room has been left since childhood. Unloved in her own family, married young, beaten by her husband for years, she finds that every attempt to get out lands her somewhere worse. A lorry driver calls her Darling, and the name is the first nice thing anyone in her life has said to her. The film follows a woman's effort to hold on to herself without pity and without decoration. Christine Carrière's film comes from Jean Teulé's novel, which was itself built on what a real woman told him. Marina Foïs plays the part in a way that keeps clear of the language of victimhood, which stops the film from becoming an easy story of sympathy. Guillaume Canet plays the husband. The narrative ends with neither a rescue nor a lesson; it shows only that the woman is still standing.