Film Review - Everybody Loves Jeanne
Images courtesy of TM Publicity.
“Obsessing over your ass while the world burns is obscene.”
Everybody Loves Jeanne (2022), ou en français Tout le Monde Aime Jeanne, directed and written by Céline Devaux is a French rom-com haunted by self-deprecating humour. The French Elizabeth Holmes and Girlboss Jeanne Mayer (Blanche Gardin) bumps into old high school friend Jean (Laurent Lafitte) as she is travelling to Lisbon to sell her mother’s apartment and escape the perils of personal bankruptcy.
Jeanne is the founder of ‘Nausicaa’, a machine that uses ocean currents to remove microplastics from the ocean. Just when Jeanne is settling into the idea of being the next “woman of the year”, Nausicaa’s launch is a catastrophic failure. The machine sinks to the bottom of the ocean and Jeanne becomes the centre of a media frenzy. Not only is she ruthlessly attacked by internet trolls, she also must declare personal bankruptcy. Jeanne’s self-image, like her invention, “sinks like a stone”. With no money, no prospects, and bankrolled by her brother (Maxence Tual) to purchase a plane ticket to Lisbon, Jeanne sets off to sell her recently deceased mother’s apartment.
Back in her mother’s apartment, Jeanne is haunted by her mother’s ghost. Jeanne is referred to not so affectionately as “a garbage woman” by her mother Claudia (Marthe Keller), who never told her children that she loved them. Unsurprisingly, Jeanne is haunted by her own judgemental ghosts who proclaim, “You’re a heroine!” one day and then “SALOPE” (SLUT) the next.
“You, Jeannette, are a modern woman. You travel. Have a career. Do conference calls. No need to love your breasts, your ass, your legs. (…) You’re a modern woman!”
A modern woman, Jeanne has no time for depression. She has boxes of emotional and literal baggage to fill! Despite this, Jeanne still finds the time to fan old flames.
This movie was surprisingly educational. I learnt that the French verb “travailler” (to work) stems from the Latin word “Tripalium” which was a form of torture. A film about the ‘entrepreneur-to-bankrupt-pipeline' wouldn’t be complete without a cynical commentary on capitalism. Devaux expresses her distaste for capitalism in this film with knockout lines like, “Debt is a financial fiction funded by neo-capitalism". A socialist slay perhaps?
Devau masters the rom-com formula in this flick just shy of a kiss in the rain and breathes new life into the classic rom-com feature. The animations that invade the screen are colourful, witty, and ever so cynical. It’s truly remarkable that Devaux not only directed and wrote this screenplay but also drew the animations herself. Devaux is the real Girlboss of Everybody Loves Jeanne.
The 2023 Winner of the Online Film Critics Society Awards for the Best Non-U.S. Release, it’s clear that Everybody Loves Jeanne is winning hearts around the world!
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Everybody Loves Jeanne is screening in cinemas now.