The narrative of this beautifully photographed true-ish French film is upside down. Instead of beginning typically, in a neutral manner and then penetrating to a darker message, it starts ominously, as we watch the servant girl of the title, afflicted with occasional fits, losing her job as a housemaid and being taken to languish in a treatment center for female hysterics.
In the hospital of the renowned 19th-century neurologist Dr. John-Martin Charcot (played by Vincent Lindon), dozens of odd young women are kept for study. (Look up Charcot if you don’t know of him; his influence endured, and Freud was among his students.)
Some girls are chosen to demonstrate their hysterics under hypnosis, in a medical theater where their thrashing rivets Parisian doctors, and is reported in newspapers. 19-year-old Augustine (played by the sultry brunette singer Soko)
becomes a choice subject, and is fashionably attired and coiffed for her appearances. Hypnotized, she rips off her clothes and falls to the floor, making auto-erotic gestures during her attacks of what was called hysterics.
Here now is a contemporary painting, its scene described recently in a lecture at Baylor College of Medicine. Charcot and his colleague are with an actual favorite subject:
"This is the patient, Blanche. She is half-naked, as Charcot always tried to illustrate things. I don’t know where his hand is, but I want you to see where the hand of Babinski is. He is rubbing her breasts, which is associated with inducing the hysteria. As for his look at her breasts and her face, whether you call it amorous or diagnostic, it’s up to you."
The subtext of "Augustine" is similar to the 2011 film "Hysteria," which in turn was based on the lighthearted play about vibrators, "In the Next Room." All are about the mysterious female orgasm, undefined but closely studied by well-dressed male doctors with serious expressions.
As the film progresses, Augustine learns to subtly work the system: take note of her pivotal scene with Charcot and his monkey. Roles, as the press release says, blur, and the audience begins to smirk and chuckle as she gets hers back.
Charcot’s mistrustful wife is played sensibly by Chiara Mastroianni (whom fan photos portray as Lindon’s offstage date). Newcomer Alice Winocour wrote and directed, and the score, mostly by Jocelyn Pook, has a strong section by Arvo Pärt near the end.