J AI Un Tel Desir

A story of lesbian love in Belle-Epoque Paris. Marie Laurencin and Nicole Groult, a far from ordinary love story. One is a well-known painter and former mistress to Apollinaire, the other a talented and creative seamstress, the sister of Paul Poiret and married to André Groult. Most importantly they express their desire freely, refusing to accept any restrictive categorisation. From 1907 to the early 1920s, when they are both married, the lovers have assignations and write each other hundreds of letters. It never occurs to them that their reciprocal desire might be shameful, they live beyond hypocrisy - naturally. They make no claims and, without even thinking, brush aside the usual laws of love. They are ahead of their time, asking nothing but their own freedom, and pleasure. Suffused with poetry and art, they are attuned, sisters. Mixing with Apollinaire, Picasso, Braque, Rousseau, Picabia and Roché, they let no one disrupt their relationship which persisted till the end of their lives.