Madeleine Collins

Directed by Antoine Barraud

Running time: 1hr46 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY

Madeleine Collins starring Virginie Efira

I hope we won’t be accused of favouritism among the many actors that we know are glued to Film of the Week, refreshing the page, hoping against hope that their film will finally achieve a coveted spot on this little corner of the internet, when we go right ahead and highlight our third film this year to star Virginie Efira.

But what can we say? The woman is a goddess. In Justine Triet’s Sibyl, she played “a flawed but modern heroine” with “witty, changeable elan”. In Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, she gave a “complex and ambiguous” performance as a nun with “a creative streak a mile wide and a liberal erotic imagination”. Now, in Antoine Barraud’s Madeleine Collins, she plays a woman on the verge of two nervous breakdowns, as an unsustainable double life threatens to collapse in on itself. All three of our 2021 Virginie Efira Eponymous Trifecta are gems in their own way.

Madeleine Collins is a slippery little masterclass in performance, which perhaps gets away from itself slightly in the third act, but offers nothing but tightly-wound intrigue in the first, and a well-handled, cathartic reveal in the second. This is a highly watchable, involving domestic melodrama about identity and the roles we play, and we’re here for anything showcasing this much of Efira’s considerable talents, with the bonus that in this almost dual part, we’re served a double helping.

MADELEINE COLLINS (2021) Written by Antoine Barraud, Héléna Klotz | Shot by Gordon Spooner | Edited by Anita Roth

Selected for Venice Days at the 78th Venice Film Festival