Product Details

• Actors: Lola Naymark, Ariane Ascaride, Jackie Berroyer, Thomas Laroppe, Marie Félix
• Directors: Éléonore Faucher
• Writers: Éléonore Faucher, Gaëlle Macé
• Producers: Alain Benguigui, Audrey Tondre, Bertrand Van Effenterre, Thomas Verhaeghe
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• DVD Release Date: March 21, 2006
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E6GCI4
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,975 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
An exquisite tapestry of strong performances, haunting music by Michael Galasso (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE) and lush cinematography, Éléonore Faucher’s debut feature, SEQUINS, is a delicate but deeply moving ode to female empowerment. Together, two women, born generations apart, learn to mend the rips in the fabric of their lives.

Claire has managed quite well since moving off her parents’ farm and into a quaint studio in Angoulême. Her supermarket cashier’s job pays the bills, but more importantly, it promises Claire enough spare time to design the intricately beautiful embroideries that are her passion. But all this is jeopardized when Claire learns that she is pregnant, at the tender age of 17.

Deciding to give birth anonymously, she finds refuge with Madame Melikian, an embroiderer for haute couture designers. Madame Melikian has buried herself in work following the death of her beloved son. Day by day, stitch by stitch, as Claire’s belly grows rounder, the threads of embroidery create a filial bond between them. In time, the grief-stricken mentor and her anxious apprentice will stop protecting themselves and start helping one another.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An admirable and well deserved to Vermeer (The spinning woman) , May 21, 2007

By	Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The terrible tragedy that means to be pregnant when you are just a teenager, the obvious fears, the familiar miscommunication, the expected social conventionalisms literally push to this young woman to abandon temporarily her job, adducing health problems related with a supposed cancer. Meanwhile she will find a place to work far from her social and familiar circle. Soon we will discover a sensitive facet beneath her, she is an admirable spinner woman who makes wonders through every little dress she spins.

An original proposal that deals with the strength of spirit that implies to be in that awful situation. There are moving sequences that will engage the spectator. A little gem from that sensitive young director: Eleanor Faucher.

Life is hard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly watchable characters, tender story, October 15, 2006

By	Wallace Smith "TN435" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Any feminist message that appears in this highly watchable film is restrained by the direction so to give the story more interest and appeal. If the underlying feminist message is that somehow men are to be blamed for all things having to do with sex (especially unwanted pregnancy), the story does not dwell on it. There is a violently graphic scene near the beginning of the film where a fresh water eel, doing its yeoman-like service as a phallic symbol, is brutally pummeled by a woman in her kitchen and then stripped of its skin. One cannot presume that the audience is simply to take note of a French cook's heroics.

What's really important in this film is the steady revealing of character rather than type, feminist or what not. A full range of daily life in Angoulême as well as accompanying significant emotions felt by 17 year old girl Claire (Lola Naymark) is nicely explored. In addition we can enjoy the beautiful cinematography and a pacing and tone similar to The Girl with the Pearl Earring to make it feel like a period piece although set in contemporary France.

The characterization is so well-defined that Claire transcends her pregnancy while living with it completely. We experience her life with an unwanted pregnancy through her varying relationships with her girlfriends at school; affection for her little brother; and even the unspoken pain she feels talking on the telephone with her demanding mother. We follow Claire into her gynecologist's office where keeping the baby or adoption seems to be the prevailing (anti-feminist?)context for this film.

There is a mood of understated suspense in the film. A tendency to depression surrounds her circumstances. Tenderness shown by Claire to her strict but tender-hearted employer (Ariane Ascaride) - a likely surrogate mother-daughter relation -is manifested in realistic and creative ways.

This film has many fine aspects to recommend it. It turns out not to be sappy and interest in the characters builds and builds. Any kind of feminist approach to this project is merely topical and has been superceded by its quiet humanity and beauty.