How refreshing to watch a film in which the sexuality and desire of women in their 70s is portrayed not as a novelty but simply part and parcel of their lives; and since this French movie is a lesbian drama, there’s two of them – even better. In one sense, Two of Us is as much a conventional romance as anything else, but it’s directed with a shiver of suspense by first-time feature maker Filippo Meneghetti. Almost like a Ruth Rendell novel, you half expect one of these ordinary characters to sink a knife into someone’s back at any moment. They don’t, but the expectation adds a little stab of something to most scenes, unnerving and unexpectedly tense.
Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) live across the hall from each other in a quiet French town. More than neighbours, they have been secretly in love for years, but kept their relationship a secret because Madeleine was married. Now that her husband is dead, the plan is for Madeleine to come out to her adult children, Anne (Léa Drucker) and Frédéric (Jérôme Varanfrain). But when the moment comes, her nerve goes. Afterwards there is a furious row with Nina. Nobody gives a damn about a couple of old lesbians, Nina rages. Not in society perhaps, but Madeleine knows that to her kids she is good old mum, who put up with their overbearing dad for years because he was the love of her life. The awful truth is that they would rather believe that she was miserable and downtrodden for decades than that she had this secret relationship.
After the row, Madeleine has a stroke. At first her kids don’t know why Nina – to them she’s just Madame Dorn from next door – is hanging around. They try to keep her away and Nina becomes obsessive, spying through her peephole and going into battle with the live-in carer hired to look after Madeleine. There’s an icy, unhinged quality to Sukowa’s performance as Nina; she seems capable of anything. And Chevallier is stunning as the temporarily paralysed Madeleine. Unable to move, her eyes dart around the room; she is fully aware of everything – even as her carers and family talk over her as if she doesn’t exist. Unsurprisingly, this brilliant debut was France’s submission for best international feature at this year’s Oscars.
• Two of Us is released on 16 July in cinemas and on digital platforms.
