AUGUSTINE - a film by Alice Winocur

Aureliano Tonet wrote in Le Monde: "The film comes out less than a year after David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method , which recounted the sulphurous trio linking Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and another hysteric, this one from Vienna...As for Cronenbergian echoes, Winocour authoritatively distances himself from them. In fact, from Charcot to Freud, from the father of neurology to the father of psychoanalysis, the protocols diverge as surely as the diagnoses. Where A Dangerous Method vibrated with the words of its protagonists, Winocour scrutinizes the hairy and convulsed body of its heroine. The bestiary that populates the film—crab, monkey, hen...—accentuates its proximity to genres that fully engage the viewer's senses."

In an interview with Mark Olsen of the LA Times, Soko said that Winocour "didn’t want me to do any research. She was like, 'Everything you need to know is in the script. We’re not doing a historical re-creation. We’re making a love story. We’re talking about sex, and we’re talking about love and how you turn from object to being the master of the man who is totally dominating you.'"

Slideshow - Soko in Augustine

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER wrote: "Soko...compellingly underplays an individual awkwardly caught between girlhood and womanhood by her physical traumas. She certainly confirms the promise that saw her nominated as 'Best Female Hope' at the 2006 Césars (for Xavier Giannoli's In the Beginning), holding her own against the avuncular, ever-observant slyness of the vastly more experienced Lindon, himself a four-time César nominee."

Soko tweeted on 8 December 2011: "Today, i got slapped in the face about 30 times, ran for my life with a paralyzed arm and leg and fell into spiky bushes, almost got raped, got violently carried off the floor while having a crazy crisis, locked myself into a cupboard...WOWZA...what a day! Shooting Augustine is AMAZING!"

Hans Morgenstern of Independent Ethos blogged about AUGUSTINE: "The performances feel sincere, which is especially impressive considering the lead actress is better known as a pop singer in her native France than an actress. Her baby-faced look allows the 27-year-old to get away with playing 19 on a superficial level. However, she also embraces a sensual drive that is particularly challenging for this woman to repress while also tangling with a sense of innocence."

TRAILER

Soko won the Best Actress award at the 2012 FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DE MAR DEL PLATA in Buenos Aires for her performance as Augustine. On 27 January 2012, the next-to-last day of filming, Soko wrote on Twitter: "Tomorrow is my last day of shoot on AUGUSTINE. i'm so so so very sad. this is THE MOVIE OF MY LIFE! i can't believe i have to leave such an amazing character/era/story."

CAST

• Soko - Augustine
  
• Chiara Mastroianni - Constance
  
• Olivier Rabourdin - Bourneville
  
• Vincent Lindon - Charcot
  
• Roxane Duran - Rosalie
  
• Sophie Cattani - Blanche
  
• Stéphan Wojtowicz - Conti
  
• Frans Boyer - Conti's secretary
  
• Lise Lamétrie - Head Nurse
  
• Aurore Broutin - patient
  
• Ange Ruzé - Pierre
  
• Valentine Herrenschmidt - Marguerite
  
• Audrey Bonnet - Aimée
  
• Jeanne Cohendy - Mélanie
  
• Grégoire Colin - Verdan
  
• BETTY THE MONKEY

AUGUSTINE has been released on DVD and BluRay in the US (French with English subtitles). The film can be streamed on TUBI.