In a Parisian public hospital, Claire Simon questions what it means to live in women’s bodies, filming their diversity, singularity and their beauty in all stages throughout life. Unique stories of desires, fears and struggles unfold, including the one of the filmmaker herself.
“Even though I believe it is rather clear, I really want to reiterate that this is not a film about hospitals but about patients, and specifically women and their bodies. It seems to me that this reverses the usual stance, centered more on the institution. When I went through the rushes, even though there’s a fair place for caregivers, it was wonderful to observe that the film is always focused on the patients. […] I had a leitmotiv: filming bodies, women’s bodies. That was all that mattered to me. Bodies in their beauty, their materiality, and their singularity – meaning the absence of standards, canons of beauty – or for instance, with the young woman undergoing the ovum pick-up procedure, playing with this Hollywood-like, single tear rolling down her cheek, her presence something between Dominique Sanda and Grace Kelly.” (Claire Simon)