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‘Visiting Hours’ Review: Isabelle Huppert Dazzles in Twisty French Melodrama
Two women who meet while visiting their husbands in prison form the knotted center of Patricia Mazuy’s tense, terse drama.
Both in its original French (“La Prisonnière de Bordeaux”) and in its English translation (“ Visiting Hours ”), the title for Patricia Mazuy ’s latest offers a bit of misdirection. But rather than aim for a pat ending that would neatly paint one or the other as a villain, Mazuy’s screenplay — written alongside Pierre Courrège and François Begaudeau with the collaboration of Emilie Deleuze — arrives at something more complicated, exalting the bond these women forged while also suggesting there was no sustainable way their relationship could have continued “Visiting Hours” is a film where lush reds (captured beautifully by Simon Beaufils’ intimate camerawork) and romantic swells (courtesy of Amine Bouhafa’s at times gorgeously strident score) help craft a bold melodrama that feels both old-fashioned, yet grounded in contemporary sensibilities and concerns.
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