"Abus de faiblesse," dir. Catherine Breillat, 2013
I'm assuming most people on this forum would associate Breillat's name with her earlier films, often times known for their violence, and that's fine, most of them are pretty good. It's here, in semi-autobiographical mode, that Breillat really shines. This is a fictionalized retelling of her experiences with notorious con man Christophe Rocancourt, who basically swindled the equivalent of $800,000 from her in loans while he was recovering from a stroke. At the time, he'd been in Breillat's consideration for starring in a film she was developing at the time. When she eventually came to her senses, Rocancourt was charged with and successfully convicted of "abuse of weakness," (the title of the film and a French legal statute), and the result is this film. It's a straightforward, linear (but heavily fictionalized) retelling of Breillat's experiences, wherein Maude, the director, is played expertly by Isabelle Huppert, and Rocancourt's equivalent character is played by rapper Kool Shen. Yeah, there's the obvious "life imitates art/art imitates life" shit you could say, but beyond that, it's just insanely compelling to see Huppert (one of the greatest French actresses of all time) play a recovering stroke patient with such power. At one point, she insists on designing her own orthopedic boots, saying something like "the handicapped need an S&M look." Good exploration on human frailty and how there's really only the uncompromising spirit or self one can rely on, but even that, at times, will let you down.
