Film in Pictures: Huppert Elicits Erotic Urges in Labrune’s ‘Special Treatment’

Toasted by the Pialats, Godards, Chabrols, Hanekes and Claire Denis, almost in her fourth decade in front of the camera, in my opinion, Isabelle Huppert is perhaps the most versatile actress in film today. By the looks of the first set of stills below, I’d say there is no typecasting her. Special Treatment is being released in France at the end of the month of September, and just prior, is receiving a world premiere showing at TIFF. Directed by writer-director Jeanne Labrune, this stars the always peculiar Bouli Lanners in the co-lead. A domestic deal seems unlikely, unless this really goes off the deep end.

Co-written by Labrune and Richard Debuisne, Sans Queue Ni Tête centres on Alice (Huppert), an independent prostitute who is tired of her job and plans to undergo psychoanalysis to find the strength to change her life. Meanwhile, psychoanalyst Xavier (Lanners) has just been left by his wife and is weary of listening to his clients’ monologues. He decides to call on a professional to satisfy his erotic urges. The two characters thus meet, but this is not the start of a romance, just the first stage in a difficult journey which, through conflicts, ordeals and disappointments, leads them both to rediscover themselves. They come across a third character (Debuisne), whom they will lean on in order to make a fresh start.