How to Be a Good Wife 2020

Paulette, Juliette Binoche runs Van der Beck’s School of Housekeeping and Good Manners in Alsace, a traditional institution designed to teach young women the skills of running a household, proper etiquette, and the idea of becoming a devoted wife. Set against the explosive mood of the late 1967 school year and the rising currents of 1968 student unrest in Paris, the story follows how this genteel world collides with a changing society, prompting its staff to confront both personal and collective upheaval.

From the start, Paulette shares the stage with her husband, François Berléand as Robert Van der Beck, his sister Yolande Moreau Gilberte, and the school’s nun-teacher Noémie Lvovsky Marie-Therese. They survey a new group of applicants and notice a red-haired girl among them, a detail that seems almost like a small omen for the year ahead. One of the students, Albane Anamaria Vartolomei, begins to reveal the tension between appearance and the harsher realities of the era, as the school’s carefully curated image starts to fray beneath the weight of real-world pressures.

The turning point comes when Robert dies after choking on a rabbit bone during dinner, a tragedy that leaves the school facing financial strain. While Paulette and Gilberte sift through Robert’s belongings, they uncover letters that expose the institution’s precarious finances and the brink of bankruptcy. With the bank looming and the future uncertain, the two women press the bank manager for help. The manager, Édouard Baer playing André Grunvald, hints at a solution: transfer the school to Paulette’s name to secure a new loan. Yet his invitation to continue a past affair complicates the precarious balance between business, power, and desire.

Paulette’s history with Grunvald runs deeper than the present crisis. He reminds her of a life she left behind—an old romance that began before the war and resurfaced as the letters and memories come into play. The flash of memory is sharpened by Paulette’s backstory: her mother’s heartbreak over her father’s fate in the camps, and Paulette’s own decision to rebuild her life by joining the staff at the school. Grunvald’s enticement and his stubborn insistence on rekindling their relationship tug at Paulette, who must weigh loyalty to the school, to the staff, and to her own sense of independence.

Meanwhile, life at the school intensifies as one of the students contemplates a marriage to a man nearly of her father’s age, an option that triggers a suicide attempt. The other girls intervene just in time, underscoring the film’s core tension: the institution’s mission to mold women into domestic harmony clashes with the growing impulse toward agency and self-determination. Paulette, exhausted by the emotional toll, reluctantly plans a trip to Paris for a housekeeping fair with the girls, a journey that promises to be a showcase of traditional values but simultaneously becomes a gathering point for resistance.

Grunvald’s presence intrudes once more, storming into Paulette’s private space with a demand for reconciliation. He agrees to reintegrate into her life only if he can prove himself, including sharing the kitchen duties and reproducing his apple strudel recipe. This intimate negotiation reveals the power dynamics at play, and Paulette’s decision to bring Grunvald into her orbit reflects the broader question of who controls the future of the school and its people.

On the day of departure, the bus bound for Paris carries Paulette, the staff, and the young women toward a planned display of propriety and order. As they near Paris, radio reports announce student riots that grind the city to a halt. Rather than turn back, Paulette leads the group off the bus, and together they advance into the city, joining the women’s liberation movement already sweeping through Paris. The road to freedom unfolds as they walk through a city gridlocked by protests, singing and marching alongside the students, stepping beyond the walls of the school to become part of a larger social shift.

Throughout the narrative, themes of tradition versus emancipation, memory versus action, and personal desire versus collective responsibility unfold in a steady, patient rhythm. The film uses intimate character work and a restrained, observational tone to explore how a seemingly orderly institution becomes a catalyst for upheaval when confronted with a changing world. It is a story about resilience, renewal, and the courage to choose a path that aligns with one’s evolving sense of self, even as it means leaving behind long-held certainties and stepping into the uncertain light of social change.