Review of 'Madeleine Collins' (2021): A woman divided

We must recognize the risk of French cinema when it comes to tackling such rough topics as the one posed by ‘Madeleine Collins’. It focuses on the double life of a woman who is intimate with two men, her husband in France and her lover in Switzerland. A tricky issue, resolved as if it were a clockwork mechanism, capable of requiring its protagonist, the consummate actress Virginie Efira, a considerable interpretive effort. However, a very forced, falsely sophisticated plot is not quite convincing, to the point that, both its ethics and its aesthetics, are as unskilled as a penguin on dry land.

The viewer follows the plot with the feeling that it could have worked better. And, above all, create restlessness, which is what it was about. ‘Madeleine Collins’ thus becomes a title disconnected from any hint of suspense and spark, as we observe from a distance the adventures of this divided woman. His life journey takes place in different cities, where he talks with strangers about things that are foreign to him. In his relationships he finds strength, weakness and pain, the three elements. The room has no name. So love – and she knows it very well – is worship. When you get over that frenzy, the tulips suddenly turn into tears.