La Femme qui boit (The Woman Who Drinks) (2001)

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An elderly alcoholic looks back on her many unhappy memories as she pulls together the fractured pieces of her life in this French-language drama from Canada. Paulette (Elise Guilbault) was an attractive young woman working in a factory when she fell in love with Belley (Michel Forget), a… More An elderly alcoholic looks back on her many unhappy memories as she pulls together the fractured pieces of her life in this French-language drama from Canada. Paulette (Elise Guilbault) was an attractive young woman working in a factory when she fell in love with Belley (Michel Forget), a good-looking man with money, social status, and a wife. Paulette and Belley became lovers, but she was unhappy with her status as the other woman, and in time left Belley for a relationship with Frank (Luc Picard), an insurance agent. Paulette loved Frank and they soon wed, but Frank was chronically unfaithful, and their relationship became a source of constant sorrow. Shortly before the birth of their first child, Paulette began drowning her sorrows in alcohol, and while she tried to shut out the pain and humiliation of Frank's infidelity by caring for her child, it's wasn't long before she found that alcohol was the surest way to dull her pain, and her addiction to alcohol soon took precedence over everything in her life -- including her marriage and the care of her child. Meanwhile, Frank became all the more brazen in his affairs with other women, driving Paulette deeper and deeper into the abyss of drink. La Femme Qui Bot was screened as part of the Critics' Week program at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi