Review of Rosalie: A hairy historical drama that gives courage and touches the heart

Saint Kümmernis is a strange phenomenon in the midst of Catholic mythology, which is already well-stocked with oddities: at first glance, one might mistake the bearded figure on the cross for Jesus in women's clothing – Christ as a transvestite? Perhaps the Conchita Wurst of the Middle Ages? At least the Spanish name of the saint, who is venerated throughout Europe but never recognized by the Catholic Church, points in the right direction: Santa Librada – the liberated one. According to legend, she was a Portuguese princess of Christian faith named Wilgefortis (“strong will”), who was to be married in the 2nd century by her father, the king of what was then Lusitania. Her prayers were answered: they did not have to marry because God made her grow a beard, which deterred men.

For the eponymous protagonist (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) in “Rosalie“The small wooden figure of Wilgefortis is her greatest consolation. She is to get married, but unlike the saints, this means the fulfillment of her greatest wish. She leaves her parents' house with her dowry and her father (Gustave Kervern). The beautiful, young Rosalie is filled with doubts: will her husband Abel (Benoît Magimel) love her? Because Rosalie has a secret, and he will discover it on her wedding night…

Stéphanie Di Giusto's second film (“The Dancer”) is not only a beautiful, extraordinary drama full of tenderness, tenderness and melancholy, it also begins directly with a captivatingly mysterious exposition without any explanation. Atmospheric images lead into an unnamed past: a young woman who wakes up from a nightmare, a chalk cross on the floor of her bedroom, her kiss for a soldier's photo, the loving father who brings her flowers and cares for her. The audience only finds out that Rosalie has a problem because she is actually hairy all over her body and is therefore constantly shaving her face when she meets her new husband Abel, who is initially confused, then afraid and finally angry when he sees her hairy chest.

But until that point, Di Giusto introduces her story in sensitively designed images and practically without dialogue, in which the most important characters in the plot are introduced seemingly casually. There is Abel, the ex-soldier, probably from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, who was seriously wounded and now ekes out a living as the landlord of a poorly run inn and as a taxidermist. Benoît Magimel (“Beloved Cook”) plays him as a taciturn, serious man with a tendency to be a loner. Abel is heavily in debt – Rosalie's dowry is supposed to save him from ruin. To do this, he took the risk of marrying her without ever having seen her.

Attack is the best defense

His creditor is the rich factory owner and landowner Barcelin (threatening and mysterious: Benjamin Biolay), the undisputed ruler of the land and its people. With his textile factory, he gives people wages and bread, children and adults alike, and he shamelessly exploits their labor. And finally Rosalie herself: an attentive young woman with a keen eye, gentle towards people and animals, understanding and kind. She is portrayed with great empathy and a mixture of down-to-earth charm and underlying fragility by Nadia Tereszkiewicz, who had already demonstrated her outstanding talent in “Forever Young” and “My Fabulous Crime”. Here she shows herself as a quiet, young woman who fights for acceptance with the courage of desperation and a lot of willpower – far ahead of her time, but actually without any chance of asserting herself against the prevailing conventions.

The plot takes an unexpected turn when Rosalie decides to be open about her hair and grows a neat beard. First, to win a bet so that Abel can reduce his debts even further. But then the guests flock to Abel's bar to see the bearded woman who always serves them in a kind and courteous manner. Rosalie becomes an attraction, she blossoms, becomes more and more courageous and even dares to contradict Barcelin. But appearances are deceptive, because while Abel and Rosalie grow ever closer, very slowly and carefully, rumors are simmering within the village community. And Barcelin is plotting revenge.

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Perhaps “Rosalie” is one of the most beautiful love stories of the cinema year, but it is definitely a melodrama worth seeing with an overwhelming visual language in which much is conveyed in passing and therefore all the more sensitively: not only the situation of Rosalie, who unintentionally and innocently becomes a victim of the prevailing zeitgeist, but also the oppressive atmosphere of early industrialization, which here tells not of the dawn of a new era, but instead of brutal exploitation and dependence. Just as casually, the film deals with the consequences of the severe war injury suffered by ex-soldier Abel, who is in constant pain and has to wear a bulky corset. Rosalie and Abel are similar in their patience in enduring a fate they cannot change and in their will to make the best of it. But Rosalie's fighting spirit is also exhausted at some point.

No word is too much here, the story is told primarily through gestures, glances and hints – and the camera explores the faces of the two main characters with tender persistence. In this way, the story takes on a wonderfully melancholic, wistful undertone that suggests a tragic ending without falling into melancholy.

Conclusion: The heartwarming drama is based on the biography of the Frenchwoman Clémentine Delait, who became known as the “bearded woman” and café owner at the end of the 19th century and was happily married to a master baker for many years. Rosalie will not be able to win the great battle for recognition, however – but at least she finds love.