ABUSE OF WEAKNESS : U.S. PREMIERE

In 2004, at the age of 56, Catherine Breillat suffered a serious stroke. Her left side was initially paralyzed and after five months in the hospital she worked like a demon to walk again. Not long after, she prepared an adaptation of her novel Bad Love and decided to cast the notorious “swindler of the stars”, Christophe Rocancourt, fresh from a jail term for fraud. Over the next several months, Rocancourt took advantage of Breillat’s condition and stood by her side as she wrote him checks amounting to €650,000. She later took him to court won her case, and chronicled the experience in a book that she has now adapted into a uniquely haunting film, with a bold, tough performance by Isabelle Huppert as the Breillat figure and French/Portuguese rapper Kool Shen as the con man.

Series: NYFF51 Main Slate: Official Selection
Venue: Howard Gilman Theater, Alice Tully Hall

Showtimes
Film runs Sun, Oct 6 through Wed, Oct 9.

Abuse of Weakness
Abus de Faiblesse | Catherine Breillat, 2013
France | French with English subtitles | 105 minutes