Directed by Claude Goretta | France/West Germany | 107 mins.

One of her earliest star turns, Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker finds Isabelle Huppert playing a reserved young hairstylist named Pomme who goes on vacation to Normandy with a friend and becomes entangled in a sexual dalliance with an intense young university student named Francois. The diffident Francois eventually rejects her because of her inarticulateness and passivity. A sexy but solemn story about the tragic fall-out from an abortive first love, The Lacemaker announced Isabelle Huppert as a commanding screen presence and force to be reckoned with. This is an actress who, early in her career, can already do a lot with a little. She is oblique yet always fascinating, her craft subtle yet redoubtable, technique ever at the ready. Often silent and nearly still, Huppert expresses both yearning and tremendous depths of sadness.

- Written by Jason Wierzba