Violette Leduc, In Pursuit of Love
Women's History Month 2025
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57m
Directed by Esther Hoffenberg • Documentary • 2013 • 57 minutes
After decades of working in relative obscurity, author and memoirist Violette Leduc exploded onto the French literary scene in 1964 with the publication of her taboo-breaking memoir The Bastard. Engaging frankly with her experience as an illegitimate child, homosexuality, and abortion, Leduc challenged the prevailing censorship of mid-century France and became a controversial icon of lesbian literature.
Bringing together archival footage, interviews with friends and scholars, and the author’s own writing, director Esther Hoffenberg crafts a portrait of Leduc’s literary legacy and complex internal life. A contemporary of Sartre, Cocteau and Genet, Leduc published her memoir with the encouragement and financial support of feminist pioneer Simone de Beauvoir. The subsequent success of her lesbian classic Thérèse and Isabelle further cemented her status, influencing generations of writers to come. VIOLETTE LEDUC: IN PURSUIT OF LOVE explores the remarkable honesty that defined Leduc's writing and continues to impact readers to this day.
“Such a film is empowering to this singular woman who would be a fish in water in our more tolerant era.” —Les Inrockuptibles
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