The Mad Women's Ball (Le Bal des Folles): A beautiful but shaky adaptation.

Rob Ryan

The Mad Women's Bal or known by its French title Le Bal des Folles is an adaptation of a book of the same name by first-time author, Victoria Mas and is a fictionalised account of the event's at Paris's infamous Pitie-Salpetriere Asylum under the supervision of Dr Jean-Martin Charcot and his patients of so-called "Mad Women". While Charcot was a very influential figure and paved the way for a better understanding of the human mind, ethically his methods for his findings have been called into question. His most famous patient "Louise Augustine Gleizes" was not only reduced to an exhibit like an animal in a Zoo but her famous outbursts and uncontrolled hysteria was exacerbated by the sexual abuse she faced as a child and the mistreatment of her time in the asylum including being kept in solitary confinement.

The book not only detail's the abuse faced by the other patients but the abuse of the wider scale of France's ultra patriarchy of the late 1800s. There's also Ghost's thrown in there as well. This adaptation comes from Melanie Laurent who despite being known for her unforgettable role in Inglorious Bastards is quite a name in France, not only for acting but for directing, producing and singing and probably much more than I'm missing.

Laurent is Madam Genevieve, one of the hospital's top nurses who is about to be visited by a new patient. Unlike the others who come from poor backgrounds. Eugine (Lou de Laage) is from a family of aristocrat's and unlike the typical diagnosis of hysteria or being too inconvenient for the husband or father, Eugine's problem is one of the supernatural as she can communicate with the spirits, including her late Grandfather who instructs her to find a necklace once lost to her Grandmother and Genevive's late sister Blandine who she still writes letter's for as a coping mechanism for her grief, with her help and maybe a little input from the spirits she will have to find her way of escape but not without undergoing a few traumatic experiences under the guise of research along the way. This all culminates in the annual ball thrown every year, where the patient's get to be treated more like animals by the social elite while for the patients, it's a chance to feel more like normal people for a brief moment and have a good time.

The book isn't a masterpiece of fiction, its writing style feels too modern for what is essentially a period piece and its climax is too rushed, leaving many interesting ideas and character's hanging without giving them a proper conclusion but at its best, it's a very vivid and at times uncomfortable read about how much we've improved but how we also have a long way to go. The movie has a lot of the same issues which I wished were rectified but not only are they are still glaring, the screenplay written by Laurent and longtime writing partner Christophe Deslandes feels too much like a first draft. creating more story problems than the book. It makes me doubt if I would be completely invested in this movie and its character's if I hadn't read the book beforehand.

Still, this is a well-made and well-acted movie, Lauren't perfectly captures the book in terms of tone and atmosphere, every actor represents their part's perfectly, the 35mm cinematography is crisp and timeless while also being appropriately grungy and dirty, The hospital setting is successfully utilised and the echo's of the screams of the women in the background often send chills down the spine. Many scenes are often cringeworthy and stomach-turning. Some of which isn't even detailed in the book. One example involves an extreme ice bath lasting for 15 days. The other involves a month's worth of solitary confinement where Jeanne (Emmanuelle Bercot) another one of the hospital's top nurses, play's "the eclipse game" where she closes Eugine's only access to sunlight in her cell for hours or day's before opening very briefly at a time. While Laurent's version is lacking in the exploration of the wider social cause of the characters such as the class analysis of Eugine's background vs the patients, or how an institution like La Salpertriere came to be, she completely excels at the effect, without ever leaning too hard into exploitation.

The movie is at its most emotionally involving, purely from the strengths of its lead actors, while the vivid detail of their characters from the book is absent. The emotion of both trauma, grief and anguish is believable and played with such empathy and understanding. Laurent sells the loss and emptiness that consumes Genevieve while maintaining a level of respect and dominance over the patient's while de Laage's Eugine is both charismatic, intelligent and charming in her curiosity while also being terrified at the strength of her powers and what they mean for someone like her. In a time when superstition was still a common belief system and society was still grappling with new scientific discoveries. It's no wonder someone would be confused and terrified of the notion that someone could talk to spirits, let alone her also being a woman not afraid to speak her mind.

With regards to her power's however, a part of me wished they were actually used for genuine horror. Not only because she's seeing ghost's but as established in the book the hospital has a long history of abuse, death, disease and suffering. A cycle that has repeated for generations, she could've been faced with visions of the hospital's cruel and ugly past and provide Eugine with more stakes as not only she's trapped in an institution that she might never leave, but she's met with visions that are too terrifying to not react in pure shock, giving the doctors more reason to keep her locked away. With that said, however, her powers do wonders at opening old wounds, not just with turning a firm and stoic Genervive into an emotional wreck but with even giving an extra dimension to Jeanne, the woman who spends much of the runtime abusing her power over others.

I do have a few questions with regards to both the book and the movie that maybe someone could answer. In what universe is it a good idea to organise a yearly dance at an asylum where both the mentally ill and the mentally stable get to dance with one another, apart from the fact that something like this wouldn't even fly in the real world no matter the time period, if the doctor's believed that the patient's where really dangerous or too unstable for normal society, doesn't organising an event that requires the two to be in close contact seems a little counterintuitive? The detail's of whether or not an annual ball like this took place is very vague and could have been fictionalised for dramatic effect, so if this is something that actually took place then I will gladly refrain from this criticism but since there's hardly anything written about it. I'm left to assume this aspect of the plot being totally fictionalised.

Also questionable (more so in the book than the film) is Eugine's modern-day feminist attitude. This is not to say that there were women back in those day's who were sick of being segregated in terms of both voting rights, education, or anything that wasn't getting married or procreating, (why else did the suffragette movement start) but Eugine's whole way of seeing the way in which women are treated doesn't strike me as something that would be held by any woman back then. Where there that many Simone de Beauvoir, Bell Hooks or Virginia Woolf ESC books back in 1885?, well if they can publish a book that Eugine reads that claims that the spirit of a man can merge away from the body once the body has lost its life force then I guess anything's possible.

The Mad Women's Ball may not be as multilayered as the book but there is still a real sense of poignancy in its subject matter that is carried through and that is mainly thanks to Laurent's assured direction, treating every character with respect and being blunt about what went on in such institutions back then. It may not be as substantive as the book but it does evoke a sense of frustration at how badly we treated those we deemed lesser than us. The relationship between the two main character's is well handled without ever spending too much time with them, it's not without its missed opportunities but it's still a well-intentioned and admirable effort.

⭐⭐⭐

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