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Venus
Beauty Institute
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Venus Beauty Institute is a little like Chantal Akerman's Golden Eighties (1986), but without the musical numbers. It charts the comings and goings in a beauty salon. Director Tonie Marshall's speciality (as in her splendid Something Fishy [1993]) is a focus on the often tawdry experiences of ordinary women, as they oscillate between hard-bitten cynicism and irrepressible romanticism. Nathalie Baye, a true star of French cinema, gives one of the finest performances of her career. © Adrian Martin March 1999 |
