Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)
Drama, Music, Mystery
Gérard Depardieu, Delphine Seyrig
Vera Baxter (played by Claudine Gabay) is a married woman with children who "lies a lot" (as she says several times); to herself as much as to others. We learn that Vera follows around her husband Jean in what initially seems to be an odd but functional relationship, where he travels to a new town, rents a place and has affairs with young women. Vera always rents a place nearby, keeping the kids and having momentary affairs herself once in a blue moon, out of loneliness. Vera just had an affair with Michael Cayre (Gerard Depardieu), who has followed her to the new flat she's considering renting because he's fallen in love with her, but Vera isn't responding to his calls. We learn the inklings of all this at a bar where a Cayre, a lady bystander (only named L'inconnue; The Unknown) and Monique (one of Jean Baxter's lovers) are talking.
Monique arrives at the villa and has a casual but intense chat with Vera. They speak of themselves and their relationships with Jean. It's revealed that Monique has been sent there by Jean (who unknown to Monique, is busy entertaining a different young lady) to tell Vera that he's supposedly going on vacation to Spain with Monique, and not take Vera this time. Vera informs Monique this isn't the first time she's heard such a promise, and Monique leaves. Vera phones her husband Jean (played in voice only by François Périer), and the conversation turns to her suggesting divorce, which Jean seems distressed by but unable to address in any practical way.
L'inconnue (Delphine Seyrig) arrives at the villa and overhears the majority of the conversation before Vera hangs up. At first the woman says she's been sent by Cayre to bring Vera back to the bar, but things really open up when she points out that Vera can tell her anything, as they don't know one another and any secrets will be kept. Vera once again launches into a story of half-truths, which the visitor easily sees through. By pointedly questioning Vera, and information L'inconnue learned from her chat with Cayre at the bar earlier, the woman helps Vera see that Jean is a contemptible cad who's been using his wife to keep his failing building business ventures afloat. In fact, Jean owed a gambling debt to Cayre, and offered a night with his wife as payment. It's soon implied that all Vera's affairs have been as controlled by her husband as every other aspect of her life. Vera asks to be left alone but L'inconnue says she heard Vera admit to considering suicide during the phone conversation, and so won't leave. Vera gazes longingly at the views of the sea outside the villa and uncovers the visitor's lie that Cayre is still at the bar waiting for her return; when he's actually left from the shame of the arrangement that made them met in the first place. Then she asks why the woman is doing this. The visitor says that when she first heard the name 'Vera Baxter', she felt she wanted to be the woman that name belonged to. Though Cayre is gone, Vera now knows that another kind of love exists in the world, and a kindness that even the visitor seems capable of. They walk through the villa and with truth alive and lies put to bed, Vera decides to leave and find out what the outside world will be like beyond the protective but corrupting influence of her husband.
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