How to Be a Good Wife

2020·108'

Martin Provost

Comedy

Letterboxd TMDB #575291

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running the housekeeping school of Bitche in Alsace for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become the perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to be subservient to their husband. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy and has to take her responsibilities. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, André, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.

Cast

Juliette Binoche Paulette Van Der Beck Yolande Moreau Gilberte Van der Beck Noémie Lvovsky Marie-Therese Édouard Baer André Grunvald François Berléand Robert Van der Beck Marie Zabukovec Annie Fuchs Anamaria Vartolomei Albane Des-deux-Ponts Lily Taïeb Yvette Ziegler Pauline Briand Corinne Schwartz Armelle Christiane Rougemont Marine Berlanger Residential school student Clémence Blondeau Residential school student