Les Mots pour le dire

The story

A psychological drama that details the tormented relationship between Marie and her mother, stemming from Marie's childhood on their estate in Algeria. The mother, Eliane had lost a child before Marie was born and was consumed with hatred for her husband who was carrying tuberculosis and may have been the cause of the child's death. That hatred was never resolved, and Marie grew up in a bitter and strained household. As both women grow older, Marie marries and raises a family while her mother sinks ever deeper into anger, frustration, poverty, and isolated despair. She vents her destructive emotions on her daughter and is completely resistant to her daughter's attempts to help her, to make her life better.

Cast

N Nicole GarciaMarie Saint-Jean M Marie-Christine BarraultEliane Saint-Jean D Daniel MesguichPsychoanalyst C Claude RichGuillaume Talbiac J Jean-Luc BouttéFrançois M Michèle BaumgartnerMichèle J Jean-Louis FoulquierBertheas R Robin RenucciMarie's father C Céline Blanc-PotardJeanne V Violaine GonceMarie, child D Denise NoëlNurse B Bernard MontagnerIntern

See more cast

A Annie NoëlNurse R Robert PartyFinchel R Rudolph MonoriRudolph M Marie CardinalEditor C Chaabia LaadraouiNany M Marie-Jo HareuxWoman at the bar A Anne-Marie JabraudMetro station chief Z Zakia TahiriYoung tango dancer A Adrien KauffmannAristide G GuillaumeChild M Mariusz Pujszo T Tomasz Białkowski J Jean Dolande M Mitzi Hahn M Maud Léthéo C Christiane Meriel G Gérard Lester(uncredited) L Léon ZitroneTV show presenter (uncredited)