Abuse of Weakness (2013)

Thursday, February 21, 2019 @ 7:00 PM
Plaza Theatre - 1133 Kensington Rd NW, Calgary, AB
$12 General | $10 Members/Seniors/Students | $40 5-Pack Punch Pass | $99 Season Pass

DIRECTED BY CATHERINE BREILLAT | FRANCE/BELGIUM | 105 MINS.

A tough-as-nails provocateur with nothing if not the courage of her convictions, Catherine Breillat has been making controversial, unflinching films about female sexuality since A Real Young Girl, her startling 1976 debut. She is perhaps primarily known for taboo subject matter and films featuring unsimulated sex acts. Breillat's 2013 film Abuse of Weakness, based on an autobiographical book of the same name, marked a notable change of pace. In the aftermath of a debilitating stroke, a Breillat-surrogate movie director named Maud Shainberg (played by Huppert), is progressively scammed out of a sizeable amount of money by a charming con man who takes advantage of her unaccustomed condition of incapacity. The hook: she knew what he was, going in. Abuse of Weakness is a remarkable collaboration between two fearless female powerhouses of French cinema and culture more generally. Playing a stubborn woman of persistence and resolve who struggles with a havoc wreaked on her nervous system, Huppert once again subtly transforms herself.

- Written by Jason Wierzba

SPOTLIGHT: ISABELLE HUPPERT

First appearing on screen in 1971, Isabelle Huppert has amassed more than 130 credits over the course of a remarkable and varied career. Indeed, she is considered by many to be the finest screen actress of her generation, having worked with many of the greatest directors of the postwar era. Whether in her famous extended collaborations with Claude Chabrol and Michael Haneke or in one-off partnerships with a who’s who of contemporary notables, Huppert is famous for her icy intelligence, intensity of affect, and subtlety of craft. Though her consistency is beyond dispute, it would be neglectful in the extreme to pigeonhole this fearless actress; while she can indeed be ruthless and inscrutable as she famously is in films such as Haneke’s The Piano Teacher, she is equally at home conducting amorous combat in Maurice Pialat’s Loulou or participating in the merry madcap antics of Serge Bozon’s Tip Top. Huppert, who has won and/or been nominated for innumerable awards, remains in a class of her own.

About Calgary Cinematheque

We are a non-profit film society dedicated to presenting significant, challenging, and essential works of cinema art in Calgary. During our season, which runs from October to April, we screen films weekly, in curated programs which situate each film in a thematic and historical context. We do this because we believe cinema is an essential form of artistic, social, and political expression. Audiences should be able to engage with a wide range of cinematic expression, not only with what is commercially viable. We believe in the power of sharing these experiences with other people in a theatrical setting and we strive to cultivate a community around that experience.  

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