The selling point for me was Agnes Jaoui as the eponymous heroine but Michel Serrault isn't exactly chopped liver if anybody asks you and the whole thing is very satisfying. The idea of an older person helping a younger one decide about a current relationship is not exactly new, Noel Coward, for example, employed the device in his fine Musical Play Bittersweet in 1929 and there have been countless others before and since. This time we have a story within a story which allows for three time-frames beginning with the present when a young girl suffering a bad case of abusive boy-friend attaches herself to the elderly Michel Serrault initially against his will but soon he is relating his own story; as an adolescent he was cut up when his mother had an affair with a younger man and in turn he (Serrault as a teenager) was comforted by an older woman (Agnes Jaoui) who in turn told him about a particularly dramatic day in her own early life which involved 1) a Polish gambler, 2)passionate lovemaking and 3)ultimate betrayal. Quite reasonably the Jaoui segment is the core of the film but the 'extras' which were not in the original novel by Stefan Zweig, nor any of the earlier film versions, blend in really well and offer the viewer three differing perspectives and not just change of light, costumes, etc. It may not be to everyone's taste but if you're an admirer of Jaoui the actress you won't want to miss it.
Review of 24 heures de la vie d'une femme
