Premiering in competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival is one of this year’s French entries, and this new film from Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, one of several female directors in this year’s lineup, is a strong portrait of the many facets of one woman’s life — which may well be why that has become the English title of the original French La vie d’une femme. We get snapshots of a busy life unfolding as this woman faces some key changing moments that will define herself, professionally and personally. Bottom line: it is refreshing to see a fiftysomething female character presented in such a fashion — sexually and otherwise — on screen these days, even if it may only be a very French thing to do.

Plotwise, Gabrielle (Léa Drucker) is a 55-year-old professional, a surgeon and head of her hospital department whose career has her stretched to the limit. This takes a toll on every aspect of her life. Her husband Henri (Charles Berling) feels neglected. She never had kids and instead poured all that energy into her profession. Her recently widowed mother (Marie-Christine Barrault) is now showing major signs of dementia and she must take on new responsibility for her. And on top of all this she is being followed at work by an author, Frida (Melanie Thierry), who is doing research for a new book and who finds herself attracted to Gabrielle. Life is complicated.

This is a mature French drama that belongs hook, line and sinker to Drucker, who dominates every scene she is in as a woman under the influence of a career in medicine that simply won’t let go. In fact as the film begins it looks like it might be the French version of The Pitt, but the graphic surgical imagery calms down to let us focus instead on Drucker’s character, who is facing a bit of a midlife crisis at work and at home. She has to deal with her superior (Laurent Capelluto), who is a bit of a pain. Hospital bureaucracy aside, she is a good doctor as evidenced by one particularly powerful scene in which she tries to convince a patient with cancer to undergo a life-saving 10-hour operation on his tongue, something he defiantly does not want to do. Her concern for him, no matter how difficult he seems, gives you hope for the medical profession and those who devote their lives to saving others.

But back at home things aren’t great as there isn’t much attention paid to an increasingly failing marriage and an elderly mother drifting into dementia whose beloved husband died two months prior. Two-time Cesar winner Drucker shows the hardship involved as she becomes her mom’s guardian and must make the decision to place her in a home, while Barrault, who was Oscar nominated as Best Actress in 1975’s Cousin Cousine, 50 years later shows here why she is one of France’s acting treasures. On top of all this there is Frida, who invites Gabrielle to the theatre and not so subtly suggests romantic feelings. Gabrielle resists, but eventually her own need for emotional support at a precarious time leads to an affair.

The film is almost episodic in detailing the life of this woman who is trying to keep it together at all costs — at work, at home, and in a new secret relationship. Drucker embodies Gabrielle with great empathy and skill. We never take our eyes off her in a role that actresses of her age rarely get except maybe in Europe, where mature women seem to thrive on screen. Bourgeois-Tacquet’s solid female-centric drama is not what you might call thrilling cinema, but it is worthwhile, and in Drucker’s hands we have a character who is something special to behold.

Title: A Woman’s Life (La vie d’une femme)
Festival: Cannes (Competition)
Director: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
Screenwriters: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with participation of Fanny Burdino
Cast: Léa Drucker, Mélanie Thierry, Charles Berling, Laurent Capelluto, Marie-Christine Barrault
Sales agent: Be For Films
Running time: 1 hr 38 mins