Movies: La Prisonnière de Bordeaux (2024) by Patricia Mazuy: Class, Confinement & the Fragile Bonds That Set Us Free
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A Prison Visiting Room Sparks a Complex Bond
Alma (Isabelle Huppert), a wealthy retired ballerina living elegantly in Bordeaux, and Mina (Hafsia Herzi), a hard-working single mother from a housing project, meet in the waiting room of a prison. Each visits their incarcerated husband—one imprisoned for a hit-and-run that caused death and paralysis, the other for involvement in jewelry theft.
Alma is drawn to Mina’s warmth and resilience and, on a whim, invites her and her two children to stay at her townhouse. She also offers Mina a job at her husband’s former clinic. As Mina moves into Alma’s home, an unusual friendship grows—both women offering each other solace as they grapple with loss, loneliness, and societal judgment.
Through this fragile connection, the film explores female emancipation, class disparity, and personal liberation, posing the question: in what ways are these women, too, “prisoners”?
Why to Recommend This Film: Subtle Power and Acting Mastery
Why to watch this movie:
Isabelle Huppert in a layered dramatic performance, portraying an eccentric, affluent woman grappling with isolation and guilt.
Hafsia Herzi’s grounded presence, bringing sincerity and grit as a mother balancing survival, shame, and maternal love.
A quietly moving study of friendship across social divides, anchored in authenticity and emotional complexity.
Patricia Mazuy’s restrained yet incisive direction, turning a familiar premise into a thoughtful meditation on class, solitude, and moral accountability.
Elegance in minimalism, using limited settings (prison, house interiors) to build emotional atmospheres without spectacle.
Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/la-prisonniere-de-bordeaux (France), https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0IRFVC9AJUBT2LBJNQC1OWM1S0/ref=dvm_src_ret_ca_xx_s (Canada)
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt30851085/
Link Review: https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/visiting-hours-review-isabelle-huppert-1236345351/
What is the Trend Followed: Social Dramas That Cross Class Divides
French cinema’s recent focus on female-centered alliances across economic lines (recalling films like The Intouchables and Portrait of a Lady on Fire).
Stories of female emancipation shaped in intimate domestic spaces, emphasizing solidarity amid adversity.
Low-spectacle, high-substance character dramas that foreground human emotion and social nuance.
Director’s Vision: Portraits of Inner Liberation
Mazuy evokes classic melodrama while avoiding clichés, emphasizing psychological depth over plot twists.
Her screenplay, co-written with François Bégaudeau and Pierre Courrège, treats Alma and Mina as equals—each reflecting and challenging the other’s assumptions about freedom, dignity, and connection.
The film’s visual style is elegant and controlled, with cinematographer Simon Beaufils using light and framing to echo the emotional confinement and emergence of the characters.
Themes: Confinement, Class, Female Solidarity
Invisible prisons—Both women live under emotional and social constraints, shaped by marital absence, guilt, and economic precarity.
Class dissonance and empathy—Their differences are acknowledged and bridged, even as power imbalances linger.
Liberation through connection—Their friendship becomes an act of mutual salvation, even as it collides with interpersonal and moral complexities.
Lingering guilt and moral reckoning—Alma’s privilege and Mina’s survival struggle animate contrasting navigations of guilt and responsibility.
Key Success Factors: Careful Craft and Emotional Honesty
Two powerhouse performances—Huppert and Herzi bring gravitas, nuance, and emotional authenticity.
Strong narrative structure—The gradual evolution from amusement to connection to disillusionment is well paced.
Social and moral resonance—The film resonates in its portrayal of female autonomy and moral complexity within hierarchical social structures.
Balanced tone—Sensitive without being sentimental; intimate without being indulgent.
Critics Reception & Reviews (with Sources)
Cineuropa (review by Fabien Lemercier) praised Mazuy for “exploring an unlikely friendship between two women from very different social classes,” noting that the film is “carried by its two wonderful lead actresses” and offers “an understated essay on the act of lying and the passing of time.”
Le Monde described the film as a “psychological drama centered on the encounter between two heroines at antipodes,” observing how it is not about literal incarceration but the invisible walls built by class and emotion, and calling the main performances “intensive and concentrated.”
Le Monde’s interview with Huppert emphasized that Mazuy’s film is “funny and cruel at the same time,” with a “depth that makes cinema feel like archeology.”
Sortir à Paris praised how the film reclaims Garaçonnière-style nuances—class, female emancipation, and their “zany yet tumultuous” friendship—calling it “much wiser” than Mazuy’s earlier noirish film Bowling Saturne.
Reviews: Nuanced, Poignant, Rich in Subtext
Praise for the pairing of Huppert and Herzi: Many critics singled out this duo as a highlight, both emotionally and artistically.
Emotional tone: Viewers often note the film’s ability to unfold observations about loneliness, class, and feminine solidarity with both elegance and emotional weight.
Critiques: A few reviews mention that supporting characters (the children, husbands) feel peripheral, and the world beyond the two leads remains underexplored. Yet most see this focus as intentional.
Final Verdict: A Quiet Masterpiece of Emotional Architecture
La Prisonnière de Bordeaux is a subtle powerhouse—a portrait of class, female solidarity, and concealment under gilded surfaces. Patricia Mazuy, in tandem with stellar lead performances, creates a film that is resonant, painterly, and piercingly human. It stands as one of the most graceful and profound French dramas of its year—a mirror of how connection can liberate when society most tries to divide.
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