Abus de faiblesse 2013

Sara Stewart, New York Post: The plot, though never less than engaging, occasionally tests believability - until you remember it's drawn from Breillat's life. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Catherine Breillat's films have always been autobiographical, often painfully so, and yet "Abuse of Weakness" cuts even closer to the marrow than the rest. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: The movie is interesting to think about as another of the Anatomy Of Hell director's power-struggle portraits, even if its conceit-by design-leaves the question of how the filmmaker allowed a known operator to bilk her out of so much money unresolved. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: As a portrait of what it's like to be suddenly helpless, Abuse Of Weakness is never less than fascinating ... Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: The film's title refers to the French legal term for taking advantage of a person of diminished capacity. The story, though, suggests other interpretations. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter: Like in all of the director's work, psychologically reductive readings of the characters are absent, though intriguing performances give audiences a way into the material. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: With clinical dispassion and narrative elegance, Breillat has constructed what she calls "a thriller about denial." Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Breillat's self-conscious refusal to establish a realistic basis for this deeply mismatched relationship winds up weakening the film irreparably. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [A] chilly, dark portrait of two control freaks locking horns. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Abuse of Weakness" is 20 minutes of a great movie and another 85 minutes of nothing much. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: Breillat's impressive film is a study of bodies and how we carry them, and it explores the manner in which weakness seeks out strength on an almost primal level, bypassing the higher modes of human thought. Read more