LA LECTRICE   1988
Directed by Michel Deville
95 minutes
In French with English subtitles

Are you still a book reader, or has the computer and e-books devoured your entire life? Do you still get pleasure from paper and from the form of a book, and especially, do you get a certain erotic enjoyment from someone reading out loud to you? Certainly this is a pleasure that is being lost in these days of low-level virtual communication. In any case, this is the perhaps outdated subject of this very special film.

One evening in bed a young woman (the adorable Miou-Miou) begins to read a book called La lectrice to her husband. It tells the story of Marie, who decides to place an advertisement in her local newspaper offering her services as a reader. This results in her being hired by a wide range of the town's inhabitants, often with unexpected results. Her customers include a disabled teenager called Eric, a stressed businessman, a Hungarian widow and a little girl named Coralie whose mother is too busy to read to her requests from Alice in Wonderland. During the course of the film, the town's authorities start to become suspicious of Marie's new profession, and the strange effect it seems to be having on some of her clients.

The complex structure of this film is a delight, constantly switching between scenes involving Marie and her clients and those from the books she is reading. Strong sensual overtones emerge when some of the clients confuse the services Marie is offering with those they imagine she is offering. La lectrice is a smart, poetic movie with sparkling dialogue and ingenious sequences where the pleasure of words joins the pleasure of cinema.

And it must be said that much of the film's drive comes from lead actress Miou-Miou (Les valseuses, Jonas Will Be 25 in the Year 2000), she is one of the bravest, most charming and sincere actresses of the last century! This now forgotten film was the winner of the Louis Delluc prize in 1988.

And what better place to see this than in a library!