She is the recipient of the 2014 Asia Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Award for fiction, and was longlisted for the 2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize.
Here Epstein dreamcasts an adaptation of The Madwomen of Paris:
The Madwomen of Paris is a Gothic tale of hysteria, hypnosis, and theatrical spectacle set at the 19th century Salpêtrière asylum. Drawn from real—if often unbelievable—events, it follows two young women who must solve a murder mystery and escape a powerful (and possibly evil) doctor. The novel features scenes in which towering male medical figures (think Jean-Martin Charcot, Georges Gilles de la Tourette and Sigmund Freud) hypnotize female “hysterics” in front of rapt Parisian audiences, and would make for a pretty wild movie; not only in the challenging roles it would offer actors, but in the jarring relevance of its themes. To be honest, though, my first thought in sitting down to write this was not about actors I’d cast in the movie version. It was about who I’d cast as director.Learn more about the novel and author at Jennifer Cody Epstein's website.
And that—unquestionably—would be Greta Gerwig.
Ok, yeah. I did just see Barbie last weekend (along with the rest of the world), and left pretty much thinking Gerwig should direct every movie, ever made, about anything, from hereon in. But I was also—and completely unexpectedly—struck by just how much Barbie had in common with my book. Sure, one is about a busty doll in heels fighting to dismantle the patriarchy, and the other about traumatized young women in petticoats turning the tables on men who’ve dismissed them as hysterical, hypnotized them without consent and paraded them before a leering public. But in the end, both Barbie and Madwomen speak to the same, painfully enduring issues: the way women’s health is simultaneously ignored and fetishized. And the way society still uses terms like “hysteria” to demean and dismiss us. And, most of all, the ways in which men exert control over our bodies and behavior to achieve their own ends. Gerwig has already masterfully displayed her historical fiction creds in her brilliant 2019 reimagination of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which also had some pointedly feminist undertones. But the fact that she turned Barbie into a feminist magnum opus for me makes her a shoo-in to adapt and direct The Madwomen of Paris, perhaps while also signing off on a line of fetchingly Hysterical Barbies. I’d trust her with the casting as well. As I think I’ve made clear, I’d trust her with anything. But if she were looking for suggestions here are a few:
Laure Bissonnet: As the novel’s (mostly) reliable narrator, a woman who has essentially cured herself of the “malady of the age” (hysteria), Laure is slowly awakening to the injustices and outright horrors of the male medical establishment. She should be played by someone with a strong, nurturing and thoughtful vibe; someone who could believably see through the medical machismo of Charcot, champion the vulnerable Josephine once she falls under his care, and form a plan to help her escape him. Annalise Basso would be a strong option; she’s got experience in horror movies (Slender Man, Bloodhound). But I could also see Mallori Johnson. She wowed me in the series Kindred (based on Octavia Butler’s seminal 1979 time-travel novel) playing Dana, a woman tasked with comprehending a surreal and terrifying reality, plotting to escape it, and loving and losing people in the process. She definitely has the kind of clear-eyed strength and eloquence that I think Laure needs to have.
Josephine Garrau: The fiery-haired ingénue at the heart of The Madwomen of Paris who wins Laure’s heart needs to be something of a paradox: outwardly delicate, but fiercely independent. Mesmerizingly charismatic, but uninterested in physical appeal. Achingly vulnerable, but also capable—just maybe—of murder. Rose Leslie, who played Ygritt in Game of Thrones, has the right vibe for me. But I could also see Bailee Madison, who like Basso has helpful horror film experience (she starred in Guillermo del Torro’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark).
Rosalie Chardon: Charcot’s reigning hysterical “queen”—the woman whose blonde beauty and sensual, hypnotic hallucinations make her a Parisian celebrity—needs to be played by someone with complexity, lightening-quick mood switches, an outsized stage presence and more than a hint of the diva. Maybe I’m still just under Barbie’s spell, but Margot Robbie seems born for this. But I could also see Florence Pugh knocking it out of the park. (Yes, I saw Oppenheimer last weekend too).
Babette: The Hysteria Ward’s long-serving head nurse needs to be serious Nurse Ratched material: ice cold, imperious and pitiless when it comes to everyone but her secret celebrity crush, asylum director Jean-Martin Charcot. I think Kathy Bates could kill in this role, though I’m also thinking Michelle Feiffer—who does ice like it’s no one’s business—could be great.
Jean-Martin Charcot: The legendary father of modern-day neurology—a man who begins his illustrious career solving Parkinson’s and ALS, and ends it entrancing young women into hysterical fits—needs to be played by someone with a ponderous, commanding presence and a piercing dark gaze. Two thoughts: Clive Owen, who brilliantly played a misguided and narcissistic medical genius in The Knick, though he’d have to wear brown contact lenses. Or Javiar Bardem, who wouldn’t have to change a thing. He has just the right level of “tortured soul” in his vibe, and can easily play a character who might maybe be a villain, but is so complex and charismatic that you’re never quite sure. (There’s also the fact that he’s my secret celebrity crush, though that probably shouldn’t play a role in casting a film about exploitatively showcasing people based on sex appeal.)
Sigmund Freud: Hopkins is the latest actor to play the father of modern psychiatry, in the upcoming Freud’s Last Session. But we need a young and highly-impressionable Freud for this film; a man whose life will be so transformed by working with Charcot and hysteria that he will not only go on to found psychoanalysis as a result, but will name his first child after Charcot. Timothée Chalamet would certainly be interesting in this role (let’s face it: he’s interesting in pretty much every role). But I think Tye Sheridan also has the right kind of sober intensity to pull it off.
The Marquis: The book’s true villain: an elderly, scheming, and inarguably sleazy nobleman who is disturbingly fixated on attractive young hysterics. No question on this one: Willem Dafoe.
Q&A with Jennifer Cody Epstein.
The Page 69 Test: The Madwomen of Paris.
--Marshal Zeringue
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