Reviews
Rosalie
Reviewed by Stephanie Daly-Parks
*Spoiler Warning*
'Rosalie', directed by Stephanie Giusto, is set in the Nineteenth Century. Rosalie (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), an attractive young woman, is to be married to a man she has never met - her father has offered Abel an ex-soldier and bar owner a dowry to marry her. Abel (Benoit Magimel) runs a cafe and is indebted to the landlord Barcelin. Rosalie is eager for children and Abel is eager to receive a dowry and to marry this attractive young woman.
Things start to go wrong on their wedding night when Abel is shocked to discover that his wife Rosalie has body hair and he is unable to consummate the marriage. Rosalie tells him that her father has always made her shave off her facial hair as he is ashamed of the way she looks. Despite the fact that Abel rejects Rosalie she always wants to have a proper relationship with her husband. Abel is a lot older than Rosalie and wears a corset to deal with a back injury which Rosalie tenderly cares to. She helps him run the cafe by offering a wager to a couple of mill workers that she can grow a proper beard. She grows the beard, wins the wager and her forwardness charms the local community and soon they are all keen to use the cafe to view her. Abel's cafe becomes successful, but Abel remains conflicted about Rosalie and still cannot bring himself to make love to her.
Eventually a metropolitan journalist hears about Rosalie and visits her and takes photographs of her and her beard as this will make money and there are characters encouraging her to join them in the fairground. Barcelin gets his minions to attack Rosalie to cause the bar to fail, but she refuses to allow him to hold sway over her which makes him more intent on destroying her.
Eventually Abel has a doctor check Rosalie out and he finds her hirsuteness is due to a hormonal deficiency and that she will be unable to have children. This is devastating news for Rosalie who has managed to get her husband Abel to love her. She has self harmed to such an extent that Abel has her hospitalised, where they remove her facial hair. Abel thinks she should return to her father to protect her but Rosalie in a defiant gesture jumps into the river. Abel jumps in after her but unlike her is unable to swim. They are together in the water sinking down and entwined together at last.
'Rosalie', directed by Stephanie Giusto, is set in the Nineteenth Century. Rosalie (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), an attractive young woman, is to be married to a man she has never met - her father has offered Abel an ex-soldier and bar owner a dowry to marry her. Abel (Benoit Magimel) runs a cafe and is indebted to the landlord Barcelin. Rosalie is eager for children and Abel is eager to receive a dowry and to marry this attractive young woman.
Things start to go wrong on their wedding night when Abel is shocked to discover that his wife Rosalie has body hair and he is unable to consummate the marriage. Rosalie tells him that her father has always made her shave off her facial hair as he is ashamed of the way she looks. Despite the fact that Abel rejects Rosalie she always wants to have a proper relationship with her husband. Abel is a lot older than Rosalie and wears a corset to deal with a back injury which Rosalie tenderly cares to. She helps him run the cafe by offering a wager to a couple of mill workers that she can grow a proper beard. She grows the beard, wins the wager and her forwardness charms the local community and soon they are all keen to use the cafe to view her. Abel's cafe becomes successful, but Abel remains conflicted about Rosalie and still cannot bring himself to make love to her.
Eventually a metropolitan journalist hears about Rosalie and visits her and takes photographs of her and her beard as this will make money and there are characters encouraging her to join them in the fairground. Barcelin gets his minions to attack Rosalie to cause the bar to fail, but she refuses to allow him to hold sway over her which makes him more intent on destroying her.
Eventually Abel has a doctor check Rosalie out and he finds her hirsuteness is due to a hormonal deficiency and that she will be unable to have children. This is devastating news for Rosalie who has managed to get her husband Abel to love her. She has self harmed to such an extent that Abel has her hospitalised, where they remove her facial hair. Abel thinks she should return to her father to protect her but Rosalie in a defiant gesture jumps into the river. Abel jumps in after her but unlike her is unable to swim. They are together in the water sinking down and entwined together at last.