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Simone: Woman of the Century

Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series ... Read all Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories Explores the life of Simone Veil -- the famous French figure who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories

• Olivier Dahan
• Elsa Zylberstein
• Rebecca Marder
• Élodie Bouchez
• 13 User reviews
• 14 Critic reviews

• Simone Veil (1968-2006)

• Simone Jacob (1942-1967)

• Yvonne Jacob

• Madeleine Jacob, dite Milou (1941-1952)

• Antoine Veil (1974-2006)
• Antoine Veil (1946-1962)

• Serge Klarsfeld

• Pierre Jampolsky

• Hafsia Hamdad
• Directeur prison Fresnes

• Jean-Émile Jeannesson

• Jean-Paul Davin
• Ginette Cherkasky (adolescente)
• Marceline Rozenberg (adolescente)

• La jeune héroïnomane

• Marceline Rozenberg (adulte)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• actress Elsa Zylberstein took on 18 pounds for the role, and spent weeks trying to imitate Simone Veil's speech pattern;
• actress Rebecca Marder listened to Veil's speeches two hours a day during 5-6 months and watched a lot of archive footage, and had a lot of makeup and prosthetics on her nose, cheeks and eyebrow arches;
• actor Olivier Gourmet had to endure five hours of makeup every morning before shooting.
• Soundtracks Les Roses Blanches Music by Léon Raiter Lyrics by Charles L. Pothier

User reviews 13

• florianernst-02102
• Nov 20, 2022
• How long is Simone: Woman of the Century? Powered by Alexa
• October 12, 2022 (France)
• Official Site (Japan)
• Simone Veil, a Woman of the Century
• Marvelous Productions
• France 2 Cinéma
• France 3 Cinéma
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $19,167,164

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 20 minutes

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‘Simone: Woman of the Century’ Review: An Admired Leader in Focus

Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder play the French politician Simone Veil in this heavy-handed biopic.

• Share full article

By Ben Kenigsberg

In “Simone: Woman of the Century,” the director Olivier Dahan applies the same ultra-glossy lacquer he lavished on biopics of Edith Piaf ( “La Vie en Rose” ) and Grace Kelly ( “Grace of Monaco” ) to the life of the French politician Simone Veil (1927-2017), a Holocaust survivor who, as health minister, fought for the legalization of abortion in France and who later served as the first female president of the European Parliament.

Veil’s remarkable, decades-spanning career — which also included advocacy for the rights of Algerian prisoners and for patients with H.I.V., at times when both were shunned — calls for a grand canvas. Dahan’s default mode is closer to bombast.

Early on, in a sequence set on the brink of the abortion law’s passage in 1974, he supplies a lengthy montage of male legislators shouting invective in close-up. Later, in this decidedly nonchronological film, Veil’s internment at Bergen-Belsen becomes an occasion for Dahan to execute a virtuoso Steadicam shot through the barracks. No matter how grave the situation, “Simone: Woman of the Century” treats it as spectacle.

Veil is played at different ages by Rebecca Marder and Elsa Zylberstein. Timeline-wise, the actresses switch sometime around the upheaval of May 1968, although the complicated, at times barely motivated flashback structure means that they are in effect coleads throughout.

Dahan, who also wrote the screenplay, provides a serviceable overview of Veil’s accomplishments and ethical sense (partly shaped by her experiences in the camps), and of the barriers she overcame in misogynistic civic spheres. But her biography deserved a more considered treatment — and a considerably less heavy hand.

Simone: Woman of the Century Not rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. In theaters.

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Simone: Woman of the Century

2021, Biography/Drama, 2h 19m

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Simone Veil's life story from her childhood to her major political battles seen through the pivotal events of the twentieth century. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era: her humanist message is still keenly relevant today.

Genre: Biography, Drama, History

Original Language: French (France)

Director: Olivier Dahan

Producer: Vivien Aslanian , Romain Le Grand , Marco Pacchioni

Writer: Olivier Dahan

Release Date (Theaters): Aug 18, 2023  limited

Runtime: 2h 19m

Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Production Co: SCOPE Invest, Cofimage 31, Scope Pictures, France Télévisions, Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge, Palatine Etoile 17, France 3 Cinéma, Sonia Films, Prod lab, La Région Île-de-France, Canal+, France 2 Cinéma, Marvelous Productions, Indéfilms 8, Ciné+

Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

Cast & Crew

Elsa Zylberstein

Simone Veil (1968 - 2006)

Rebecca Marder

Simone Veil (1941 - 1962)

Élodie Bouchez

Yvonne Jacob

Judith Chemla

Milou Jacob

Olivier Gourmet

Antoine Veil (1974 - 2006)

Mathieu Spinosi

Antoine Veil (1946 - 1962)

Sylvie Testud

Marceline Rozenberg

Philippe Torreton

André Perdriau

Philippe Lellouche

Serge Klarsfeld

Esther Valding

Marceline Rozenberg, jeune

Antoine Gouy

Jean-Paul Davin

Laurence Côte

Ginette Cherkasky

Olivier Dahan

Screenwriter

Vivien Aslanian

Romain Le Grand

Marco Pacchioni

Manuel Dacosse

Cinematographer

Richard Marizy

Film Editing

Olvon Yacob

Original Music

Christian Marti

Production Design

Gigi Lepage

Costume Design

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‘Simone: A Woman Of The Century’: Review

By Lisa Nesselson 2022-11-18T11:02:00+00:00

Olivier Dahan follows ’La Vie En Rose’ and ’Grace Of Monaco’ with this portrait of inspirational French politician Simone Veil

Source: Other Angle Pictures

‘Simone: A Woman Of The Century’

Dir: Olivier Dahan. France. 2022. 140mins

Following global hit La Vie en Rose , in which Marion Cotillard excelled as Edith Piaf, and guilty pleasure Grace of Monaco,  starring Nicole Kidman, French writer-director Olivier Dahan caps his trilogy devoted to noteworthy 20th century women with an ambitious, frequently didactic but unquestionably educational look at the truly remarkable French politician Simone Veil (1927-2017).

Weaves a sensory narrative based less on chronology than on lasting emotional echoes

Having surpassed 1.5 million admissions in France, where it is still going strong after releasing on October 12 through Warner Bros, Simone, A Woman of the Century ( Simone - le voyage du siècle ) covers Veil’s life from her happy childhood in a loving and well-off secular Jewish family through her arrest and deportation to Auschwitz the day after her high school graduation (her mother perished there and Veil never saw her father and brother again), through her post-war accomplishments. These included being the only woman at arguably France’s most elite university, her successful campaign to legalize abortion in France and her role as the first president of the European Parliament. She was also a wife and mother.

Having experienced obscene attacks on human dignity at the hands of the Nazis, Veil grew up to be a crusader. She was a trail-blazer in demanding such things as: basic amenities and healthcare for prisoners – “Madame, are you suggesting that we set up libraries for prisoners?!” asks an incredulous boss; compassion for AIDS sufferers; support centres for long-term drug addicts; and, of course, led a brave campaign for legal abortion, which left her open to insult and abuse. (The filmmakers use transcripts from the debates on the floor of French Parliament but, while Veil didn’t like being insulted, she found unpleasant obstacles in post-war society paled in comparison to the camps.)

Despite such opposition, what is known as The Veil Law passed in the small hours of the morning on 17 January 1975, securing access to the safe, legal and publicly funded procedure known in French as ‘voluntary interruption of a pregnancy.’ One can speculate that had Veil perished in Auschwitz, that crucial advance in health care might have been delayed for decades.

Veil’s relationship with her husband Antoine (played by Mathieu Spinosi as a young man, and  Olivier Gourmet in later years) took an interesting turn when, to further his career, the young couple agreed to a political posting in Germany, the last place most survivors of the Nazi regime would willingly venture so soon after the war. And Veil resented her home country’s informal policy of sweeping its policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany, and the mechanics of deportation, under the rug. It was years before she could be instrumental in confronting that legacy. At a ceremony to lay the first bricks for a new school, an official complimented Simone on how she handled a trowel and cement. “It was my job in the camps,” she replied. Working as a mason had saved her life. Wrenching interviews for French television followed.

Veil is splendidly portrayed as a young woman by Rebecca Marder, with Elsa Zylberstein — in heavy prosthetic make-up — playing her from1968 on. The project was initiated by Zylberstein, who knew the real Simone Veil and worked hard to master her speech patterns – an accomplishment for which many French commentators have taken her to task, along with Zylberstein’s admittedly extensive make-up.  Non-French viewers are unlikely to care about the discrepancies between Marder’s relatively natural performance and Zylberstein’s more mannered one. But Marder has the advantage of playing someone who was not yet famous.

The film’s style is similar to La Vie En Rose – an almost woozy but controlled camera drops in and out of episodes in Veil’s life weaving a sensory narrative based less on chronology than on lasting emotional echoes. Foremost being that she remains — understandably —haunted by having witnessed evil up close and very personal. One aspect of what we now call post-traumatic stress was her longtime inability to sleep in a comfortable bed, preferring the hard floor.

While not as stark as, say, Son of Saul , the concentration camp imagery is respectfully harsh, and more extensive than one might expect. The death march at the war’s end as the Soviet Army approached is captured with horrifying grandeur in one extras-laden shot. Dahan (who writes, directs and co-edits) has explained the importance of showing the camps, because today’s teenagers have not seen Claude Lanzmann’s irrefutable doc Shoah , or Spielberg’s fact-based Schindler’s List or Polanski’s fact-based The Pianist. He has a point.  For great swathes of contemporary audiences, Wakanda probably seems more real than the horrors of WWII. Super-hero movies are swell but a well-crafted film devoted to a real-life hero — one to whom even the most virulent European anti-Semites owe a great deal — is a fine use of the medium.

Production companies: Marvelous Productions, France 2 Cinéma, France 3 Cinéma, Scope Pictures

International sales: Other Angle Pictures [email protected]

Producers: Vivien Aslanian, Romain Le Grand, Marco Pacchioni

Cinematography: Manuel Dacosse

Production design: Christian Marti

Editing: Olivier Dahan, Richard Marizy 

Music: Olvan Jacob

Main cast: Elsa Zylberstein, Rebecca Marder, Elodie Bouchez, Judith Chemla, Olivier Gourmet, Mathieu Spinosi, Sylvie Testud, Philippe Torreton 

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SIMONE, A WOMAN OF THE CENTURY

by  Olivier Dahan

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Simone: Woman of the Century (2022)

Original title: simone, le voyage du siècle.

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Simone: Woman of the Century is 2697 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 1026 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie but less popular than The Crawling Hand.

Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. Her childhood, her political battles, her tragedies. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era defending a humanist message still keenly relevant today.

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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Taste for Risk

Reflecting on a career path that began with schlock before building toward some of the highest grossing – and most expensive – films of all time, Cameron saw a clear throughline in his taste for risk.

“The more established you become, the more you risk losing what you’ve already gained,” he said. “But I also think that the greatest risk you can make is not trying something new and different. There’s a tendency, when the budget gets bigger, to start to go for the lowest common denominator – and you cannot do that.”

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