Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #44. La bonne épouse – Martin Provost

La bonne épouse

Initially an actor whose career began in the mid-1970s, France’s Martin Provost has become a notable director over the past decade, which began with the breakout of his third feature, Séraphine in 2008. Since then, he tends to craft substantial vehicles for France’s finest leading ladies, and he’s nabbed Juliette Binoche for his latest feature, How to Be a Good Wife, which also reunites him with Yolande Moreau among a supporting cast which consists of Francois Berleand, Noemie Lvovsky, Edouard Baer, Anamaria Vartolomei (My Little Princess, 2011). Provost co-writes with Severine Werba in a project produced by Francois Kraus and Denis Pineau-Valencienne. Provost’s 2008 Séraphine won the Cesar for Best Film and Screenplay and his 2013 title Violette opened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, which stared Emmanuelle Devos. In 2017, his Catherine Deneuve-Catherine Frot led The Midwife played out of competition at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Gist: Binoche, along with her sister (Lvovsky) and sister-in-law (Moreau) runs a local housekeeping school in late 60s France. But her passionate fervor for the teaching of womanly and wifely duties is suddenly challenged, perhaps because of the sudden return of a past lover (Baer).

Release Date/Prediction: Provost filmed July to August of 2019. The Festival Télérama have a first look, but with a March 2020 release in France suggests Provost will return to Berlin, perhaps this time in a competition slot.