TRAILERS

Fest Trailer for 'The Mad Women's Ball' Directed by Mélanie Laurent

by Alex Billington
August 12, 2021
Source: YouTube

"Is it true that you communicate with the dead, Mademoiselle?" An early trailer is out for the French drama The Mad Women's Ball, which is premiering at the upcoming 2021 Toronto Film Festival soon before debuting on Amazon Prime Video. From TIFF: The latest from writer-director-actor Mélanie Laurent is a chilling tale of spectral visions and institutional abuse set in 19th-century France. The film stars Mélanie Laurent, who also wrote & directed it; she's also joined by César Domboy, Lou de Laâge, Benjamin Voisin, Emmanuelle Bercot, Cédric Kahn, Coralie Russier, plus Martine Chevallier. A woman who is unfairly institutionalized at Paris asylum plots to escape with the help of one of its nurses. Based on the novel "Le bal des folles" by Victoria Mas, out now in hardcover for those interested in also reading this "darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice and the insuppressible strength of women." This plays like a first look teaser more than a full trailer - expect to see more before it debuts later in September.

Here's the first promo trailer for Mélanie Laurent's The Mad Women's Ball, from TIFF's YouTube:

The Mad Women’s Ball tells the story of Eugénie, a radiant and passionate young woman who is at odds with her bourgeois milieu in the late 19th century. When her family learns she communicates with spirits, they decide to have her committed… Eugénie is taken against her will to a clinic at La Salpêtrière in Paris, directed by the eminent Professor Charcot. La Salpêtrière houses women diagnosed as hysterical, mad, or mentally ill. Here, far removed in every respect from her bourgeois background, women are subjected to many experiments, carried out by doctors without scruples, in the name of science. It is here that the young woman's path crosses that of Geneviève, a nurse in the neurological unit. Geneviève is tormented by the death of her sister. She leads a monotonous life, between her father, a former doctor, whom she must take care of, and Professor Charcot, to whom she is totally devoted. But the arrival of Eugénie is about to change all that. The meeting of the two women will change their destiny forever as they prepare to attend the famous "Bal des Folles", a ball at the clinic, organized every year. The Mad Women's Ball, originally known as Le bal des folles in French, is both written and directed by French actress Mélanie Laurent, director of the films The Adopted, Breathe, Plonger, and Galveston previously. Based on the brand new novel "Le bal des folles" written by Victoria Mas. This will premiere at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival this year. Amazon will then release the film streaming on Prime Video on September 17th, 2021. Intrigued?

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