Jenny: A French drama that keeps you guessing about the truth

Is it worth the watch?

Honestly, you should probably watch Jenny if you have a soft spot for pre-war French films. It has this thick, smoky atmosphere that sticks to your ribs. But if you get bored when a movie spends a lot of time just letting people look at each other, you’ll hate it. It moves at its own speed, which is to say, it moves like a snail in a tuxedo.

Françoise Rosay is the whole show here. She plays a madam, but not the kind you see in cheap dime novels. She has this way of holding her face that says she’s seen every bad thing a city can throw at a person. Every time she’s on screen, the movie feels a little more real.

The mother-daughter thing

The daughter comes back from England and is all naive and sweet. It’s the kind of dynamic that makes you want to cover your eyes because you just know it’s going to end badly. It reminded me a bit of the tension you find in Woman Unafraid, though the vibes are totally different. You spend half the runtime waiting for the bubble to burst.

There’s a scene near the middle where they’re talking in a kitchen, and the lighting is just… moody. Not in a fake way. It feels like real late-night kitchen light. You can almost smell the stale coffee. It’s these tiny, grounded moments that make the whole thing work, even when the plot starts to feel a bit stretched thin.

Odd bits and pieces

• The Kentucky Singers are in this? It feels like a fever dream for a second.
• The pacing is a bit weird. Sometimes it feels like a stage play, then it jumps to something else entirely.
• I think I counted three times where characters just walk out of a room for no reason.
• The outfits are great, if you’re into that sort of thing.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it doesn’t try to be. It’s just a movie about a woman trying to keep her life in two different boxes. Sometimes the boxes leak. That’s enough for me. 🍷