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La Bonne Épouse

French comedy about life at a school for good housekeeping at the end of the 60s, starring a wonderful Juliette Binoche.

Time & Tickets

At the end of the 60s, home economics schools - which, for over one hundred years, had trained armies of homemakers, housekeepers and nannies all over France - were living out their final years. It is in this time, that Paulette van der Beck and her husband own one of these schools. She teaches young students to manage a home, to mend their husband’s underwear, to stuff a bird and to recover the bottom of a sauce pan.

But times change. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette learns that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them.

Reunited with her first love, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Thérèse, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.

Martin Provost, France, 2020, 109 min. French spoken, Dutch subtitles. With Juliette Binoche, Yolande Moreau, Noëmie Lvovski, Edouard Baer, François Berléand.