Venus beauty = Venus beaute (institut)

Forty-something Angele works in a French beauty parlour named Venus Beauty, attending to the vanities and vulnerabilities of a parade of eccentric regulars. Despite her reassuring manner when dealing with her clients, Angele’s personal life is a secret mess which no amount of cosmetic pampering can set straight. Having long decided that ‘mutual love doesn’t exist’ she picks up strangers in cafes and bars for non-committal one night stands. One day she meets Antoine who confesses that he has been harbouring a secret love for her in spite of the fact that he already has a twenty year-old girlfriend who is one of Angele’s clients. Despite her initial reluctance Angele gradually becomes drawn into a relationship with Antoine discovering for the first time the elations, fixations and pitfalls of ‘amour fou’. The film shifts from farce to tragedy and back with sensitivity. Warm, wry and bitter-sweet, it never resorts to sentimentality in its portrayal of late-blooming love. In French with English subtitles. Cast includes Nathalie Baye, Bulle Ogier and Samuel Le Bihan.