Camille Claudel 1915

The story of sculptor Rodin's torrid affair with his muse (and fellow artist) Camille Claudel is an obvious subject for a French costume drama - so obvious, in fact, that austere director Bruno Dumont opts not to tell it at all. Instead, this challenging, intellectual film is set nearly two decades after the couple parted and finds Claudel (Juliette Binoche) locked up in a remote mental institution, where, convinced that someone is trying to poison her, she cooks her own modest meals. Real-life nurses and psychiatric patients play the supporting roles, making the depiction of Claudel's daily life tough to watch. But with the arrival of her poet brother Paul (Jean-Luc Vincent), things become more interesting. Using the siblings' actual correspondence as his inspiration, Dumont starts to explore his heroine's state of mind, revealing a woman pushed to breaking point by the men in her life. Binoche is excellent in a part that trades not on her beauty but her mind, portraying a woman whose talent made her dangerous in less enlightened times.