Pearl

Nelly (Isabelle Huppert), a young woman from the Parisian bourgeoisie, is bored with her life alongside her possessive husband, the head of an advertising agency. In a nightclub, she meets Loulou, a boorish drifter and petty criminal. Nelly is fascinated by him and embarks on a passionate affair with him. When she eventually falls pregnant by him, she is forced to make a decision. Loulou, Maurice Pialat’s groundbreaking social drama about a woman torn between two men, explores female desire and offers a scathing critique of French society. (mb)

‘There is something so real, so sensual, so immediate about Pialat; he was unique, and Loulou is one of his most significant films. The film was full of emotions about relationships and the cruelties between men and women. It is a timeless theme: the husband, the wife and the lover. Instead of secrets and lies, everything here was transparent.” (Isabelle Huppert, in an interview with Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, Oct 2006)