El baile de las locas

Ice water soakings, solitary confinement in dark cells, tranquilizers, and random body cavity inspections are just a sampling of the standard psychiatry treatments inflicted upon captive female patients in France 130 years ago. Free spirited Eugenie suffers debilitating visions that she cannot control or understand. She is only in need of some gentle guidance, understanding, and self-confidence. Instead, Eugenie is tricked by her parents and committed against her will to a cruel and misogynistic psychiatric ward. Abandoned by her relatives, Eugenie finds a different family among her unlucky ward sisters.

Women's history is reimagined in a scorching yet sensitive way by Melanie Laurent who directs and stars in the film. Thankfully the film is made in France, and therefore uncensored and blunt. While the film lacks cohesion and a little spark, it is enlightening and energizing to witness multidimensional, realistic, and complicated female characters, and women behind as well as on the screen who are defined not by men but by themselves.

World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival.

About the 19th century psychiatry treatment of women in le hospitale salphetriere in paris, france. Its a well made jump back to the past, where womens destiny where the mens decision, a fathers decision, a brothers decision or a husbands decision, if you were apart from the common term of normality, they could put you in a house for madwomen with a blink of an eye.

Acting is superb, though the story might feel a bit shallow and it-ified, where the caracter build is purely towards the main caracter, i feel far more shouldve been spent on the copatients and doctors, who many of them where real life caracters..

staging of the sets are impecable, youe drawn into a miljoe of darkness and madness, the musical score that contains lots of deep cello tones do enhance the tragedy of them lost soles in the socalled human care business, thank god things have cchanged to the better, but still humanity has a giant leap to take to make psychiatric care and medicine perfect.

Its a french edition of the typical dickensian british take on the mental ill a good take thinks the grumpy old man, but not perfect.

This film was breathtaking from start to finish. Brilliant story, incredible acting, beautifully haunting music score. It was intriguing, and mesmerizing. One of the better films I've seen recently.

I was totally unaware of this film because I did not see any publicity but I was encouraged to see it without even knowing what it was about. What can I tell you, this movie was awesome from start to finish. The story is brilliant, costumes and performances impeccable, the music is beautiful and I am fascinated. I Love French cinema! In fact it is the first French film produced by Amazon.

My dear Geneviève, we are free...

After Oxygen, Mélanie Laurent returns directing and starring in an Amazon original.

As a director, Laurent did a great job showing the cruelty in the treatment of women in asylum back in the days. The "therapies" were nothing different from tortures. However, within the cruelty was the premise that added heart to the characters. I liked that the movie didn't scream feminism, but let the scenes play out so audiences could root for the women characters.

Probably my only problem was the movie became pretty predictable near the end. I liked how the two main characters were tied to each other, but what became of it was quite clear and not surprising.

Overall, a solid and well done movie. 7.5/10.