Lulu femme nue (2013)

Lucie “Lulu” (Karin Viard) goes for a job interview in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie. Shy and lacking confidence, she doesn’t know how to present herself well. She isn’t hired. She is married to Serge (Patrick Ligardes), a mechanic. They have three children: their eldest daughter, Morgane (Solène Rigot), who is 16, and two boys. At the station, Lulu calls Serge to tell him the bad news. He replies contemptuously that he expected as much. The only thing that seems to concern him is that his wife should come home. Upset, Lulu watches her train pull away from the platform. She records a message on the answering machine, giving Morgane instructions and explaining her situation. Lulu spends the night in a hotel. The next day, when she arrives at the station, she realizes she no longer has her wedding ring. She goes back to the hotel. The receptionist isn’t at his desk. She eventually finds him and tells him she left her ring in the room beside the sink. He tells her he can’t go and look for it just now and that she’ll have to come back later. In the meantime, Lulu goes for a walk by the sea. In the messages he leaves on her cell phone’s voicemail, Serge does nothing but demand that she come home and account for herself. Lulu spends the night at the hotel. The next day, she calls her sister Cécile (Marie Payen) and tells her she isn’t coming home just yet because she wants to stay here and clear her head. From the top of a cliff, she spots a motionless man lying face down on the sand at the foot of the rocks. She goes over to him and speaks to him, but he doesn’t answer or move. She shakes him, and Charles (Bouli Lanners) gets up; they begin to hit it off. She tells him she has no children. Lulu’s phone rings. He takes it and throws it far away onto the rocks. Lulu is stunned. He goes to retrieve the phone. When he comes back, Lulu has left. Lulu’s bank card is swallowed by the ATM. She calls her bank. The woman she speaks to tells her that Serge reported the card stolen and that she’ll have to wait ten days to receive a new one. Lulu calls Serge at his garage, but she can’t bring herself to speak and hangs up. She sleeps under a shelter. A man wakes her and crudely asks her to give him a blow job. Lulu runs away. She arrives at the fairground and gets into a bumper car. She recognizes Charles, who is driving another bumper car. Smiling, he tells her he has her cell phone and introduces her to his two brothers. She parts from him outside the hotel. She goes inside and waits until she can no longer see him outside. The receptionist tells her he hasn’t found her wedding ring. A little farther down the street, Charles sees her come out of the hotel. At night, Lulu sits on the seafront, preparing to spend the night under the stars. Charles sits down beside her. When he asks, she admits she has no money. At his place, Charles makes an omelet for Lulu, who is starving. Charles’s two brothers come in and sit around Lulu while she eats. Charles gives up his bed for Lulu. The next morning, Charles’s brothers offer Lulu a place in an empty, vandalized caravan near the mobile home where Charles lives. Lulu accepts. Through a series of significant encounters, this timid, self-conscious woman opens up to strangers, takes stock of her life and of who she is, what she wants, and what she truly loves. And she changes.