“Two Women” premiered at Sundance 2025 on Saturday, January 25th. It is a film about, you guessed it, two women. We follow them as they go through a sexual awakening, freeing themselves from the confinement of settling and saying no to sacrificing their happiness. Violette (Laurence Leboeuf) and Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman) reject the pressures of society in this adventurous, nostalgic-feel comedy, and explore the weight of choosing your happiness. Producer and screenwriter of the beautiful film set in Montreal, Catherine Léger unfolds this light-hearted story with larger conversations woven in between the lines.
It was awarded “A World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Writing” at Sundance. The jury stated, “For its courageous exploration of female desire, its joyful and comedic tone, and its fearless, complex characters with awakened sexuality — this film exudes freshness, rhythmic editing, and impossible wit.”
The film was first a play based on the 1970s comedy and cult movie, the “Deux femmes en or.”, centering around two bored, housewife neighbors who go on sexual endeavors with delivery and repair servicemen to excite and add adventure into their lives. Léger adapted the play from the concept, and it was successful on the stage. Flash forward to the pandemic, the writer was still connected to this idea of these bored women tapping into their desires. She especially felt connected to the story because Léger was bored at home, while quarantined.
“During the pandemic, I was bored at home, I was stuck at home. And then I was like, ‘This is what I want to be writing right now.’ And so then, I started working on the movie script,” Léger revealed.
With a few connections from the film industry, Léger eventually got connected with the director of “Two Women”, Chloé Robichaud, who she had always wanted to work with.
Léger explains, “Even though a director and a screenwriter really want to work together, it's hard for them to find the right project…I was dreaming that she would do ‘Deux femmes en or’ with me, but at the same time, I don't know her perspective on that cult movie, which was like a soft, erotic movie at the time. And so I called her up, and then it turned out she also knew the movie, loved the movie. Right then, it was just obvious that we were going to do that movie together. And I'm so happy with the result. I'm just thrilled.”
“Two Women” centers around two neighbors, Violette and Florence, who first meet each other in an awkward encounter. Violette is married, and a new mother, while Florence has a 10-year-old son and is in a committed relationship. They are both simultaneously going through a drought in their relationships from romance, sex, and overall excitement. During their first encounter on screen, Violette confronts Florence about a noise she had been hearing…almost like a crow’s call, except Violette thinks it’s Florence and her boyfriend having loud sex. Florence is shocked by this assumption and reveals that she has not had sex in a long time because of the pills for depression she has been taking. The two characters end up connecting overall their lost sexuality, one still in the breastfeeding stage of motherhood, while the other loses her drive due to her medication.
The screenwriter and producer reveals that this connection between the characters is vital to the symbolism of the crow. “Violette is breastfeeding, and there's something about breastfeeding that is just not for every woman, but it happens. I remember I was watching all these sexy scenes, and I couldn't follow anymore. I couldn't relate. I was so disconnected, while I was breastfeeding. And so I was trying to find a way to show that. Then there's this moment where you think you hear people having sex, but then you're like, ‘What are they doing?’ You don't understand anymore…so that was really the starting point for Violette.”
Léger continues, “Then I also needed Florence to not be connected to her own libido, which for me was interesting… A lot of people are dealing with that struggle, am I staying on the pill that’s killing my libido, or am I getting off the pill? So, I wanted to explore that, too. And then it just came to this moment where Violet confronted Florence. For me, it was to be sure that the screams were not coming from Florence, and then I needed to explore where they were coming from. I realized at some point it could mean the birds have this impression that life is happening outside of your house, outside of you, and you're not participating.”
Through this awkward moment, Violette and Florence unspokenly awake a desire within themselves. Although they are going through the same experience, the two characters are different in approaching it. This difference is compelling to watch on screen as we see their self-fulfilling adventures unfold, representing different choices a person can make, and more specifically, how different stages of motherhood affect these choices.
“For them to become friends, it was important for me that they would somehow have the same need, but approach it differently,” Léger reveals. “It was clear that Florence would have more drive or be more rebellious, and also be in a later stage of her maternity. Because it's not only about a woman's sexuality, it's also about a mother's sexuality. “Violet is in this really early stage of motherhood, and for the first time, she's going to be like, ‘Okay, am I still a woman or am I a mother now?’...Sometimes when we have a character that's a mother, that character becomes only a mother. It was really important for me to explore those two mothers, one has a 10-year-old, one has a baby, and see how they needed each other at that point of their life. They were in a different situation, and also that's why it doesn't end the same way for both of them.”
Motherhood is an important theme touched upon in the film. While we see these mothers let themselves go from holding onto their desires, “Two Women” shows us that these characters are more than mothers. Léger challenges the notion in the film that a mother is only boiled down to just being a mother. In doing so, the focus is on the characters themselves and the pressure on mothers to constantly be selfless.
Léger explains, “It's more about the pressure of having success in all these parts of our life when they actually don't go together that well. Being a great lover and a great mother at the same time sometimes does not go together that well. And that's more what I wanted to explore…This is not a statement about motherhood, it's more about how motherhood coexists with being a woman.”
Giving the characters compassion was something important to Léger. While it is a light-hearted comedy, there is something to be said in this film’s warmth around letting the two characters make their own choices in search of finding something more and taking the pressure off of being everything to everyone.
“I really like to give the characters some compassion because it's like they're trying to carry everything on their shoulder, and they think the world is watching them as they are failing in keeping their life together,” Léger says. “But that's not what it is, life is hard. Relationships are hard…we think that if we don't succeed, it's on us. But I wanted to send the message to those characters that it's just difficult. It's not your fault.”
Léger expands more on this topic and how focusing on the picture-perfect life leads us away from something much bigger,“ We live in a society that is so focused on how we're going to perform in our job, in our life, and how we're going to perform in being happy, and how we're going to perform in being healthy. We keep getting these messages that we control everything, and if we actually did the right thing, everything would fall into place… And that's also what I was trying to show how all this pressure that we're putting on ourselves is keeping us away from maybe a bigger collective project.”
The Sundance jury was right in honoring this charming screenplay. “Two Women” is more than a fun-filled escape into the minds of two bored housewives. It leaves room for deeper conversations about motherhood, society, and sexuality. Léger’s writing is a warm blanket around those who feel like they have to measure up to this impossible standard of being good enough, while simultaneously leaving you laughing in between the breaths of relief.
