DVD Review: Call Me Madame (Appelez-Moi Madame)
Author: A Geek Girl — Published: Jun 06, 2010 at 6:16 pm
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/dvd-review-call-me-madame-appelez/When the Germans occupied France during WWII, 17-year-old French freedom fighter Jean-Pierre Voidies was captured by the Gestapo. He was taken to a forced labor camp where, as a prisoner of war, he was held and tortured. He nearly died at the hands of the Nazis. At his liberation he was honored by the French poet Paul Eluard.
In 1986 French filmmaker Francoise Romand boarded a boat and set out for the village of Rouen. She went in search of Ovida Delect, a 60-year-old French poet and the author of 40 books. Delect was living near the sea with her female 'companion' Huguette and their 19-year-old son, Jean-Noel. Delect had agreed to allow Romand to make a documentary about her, but with an understanding that she would have some artistic control over the project.
Appelez-Moi Madame (Call Me Madame), is a documentary about French transsexual and prolific writer/poet Ovida Delect. It is a rare look into the life of this man-turned-woman, as well as the effect his sex-change has had on his wife, now called his 'companion' due to his gender reassignment, and their teenage son.
