The Hairdresser's Husband Summary

The Hairdresser's Husband Summary (directed by Patrice Leconte)

1. Antoine as boy, dancing to Arabian music on the beach. || Credits.
2. Antoine curling his hair. || Memory: influence of wool swim trunks.
3. Boy off to the barber. Mrs. Schaeffer. Smells of the barber shop; sensual shampoo.
4. Antoine doing crossword. || Boy at barber: Mrs. Schaeffer's shirt pops open.
5. Dinner with family. Father: what do you want to be later? Older brother: civil engineer. Antoine: "Later on, I'll marry a hairdresser." Slap. Father: "Why did I do that? ... Do what you want in life."
6. In the salon. Antoine reading; hairdresser (Mathilde) : "There's a storm coming." Debating customers: "Nothing exists without a model." Example of coffee grinder. "God is infinite, you can't fathom Him." Mathilde notices one of the customers is aging, and becoming careless of his appearance. She bends over in front of Antoine; we learn her name.
7. Isidore offers the salon to Mathilde. "Liking solitude, she ran the shop alone."
8. Antoine comes to shop, but is sent away for a phantom customer.
9. Antoine and father. "The more they resist, the sweeter the surrender." Antoine pulls up his wool trunks.
10. Antoine returns to salon. || Flashback to slap. || Mathilde: "Your hair was cut too short." Antoine (voiceover): "Naturally, I wondered if Mathilde wore a bra."
11. Boy peers into shop and sees Mrs. Schaeffer dead. Love of women's breasts.
12. Salon. Antoine: "Will you marry me? ... Forgive me." Watches Mathilde's window. || Boys digging at beach; Antoine gets bulldozer. "No dream is impossible."
13. Three weeks later, back at salon. Antoine watches Mathilde finish with customer, then has shampoo and haircut. Mathilde: "If you weren't teasing ... I will marry you." They talk. "We'll stay here." "The past is dead." "Mathilde had no family."
14. Wedding gathering at salon. Brother brings wool trunks, childhood picture of Antoine. Mathilde has no childhood pictures because they make her sad: "Time flies too fast."
15. Isidore visits; used fake last name to be more exotic. Customer arrives, is invited in to shave beard, which he thinks makes him look too sad.
16. Antoine dances to Arabian music, invites Mathilde to join him. Antoine (voiceover): "We'd be so closely welded that nothing cold or evil could slip between us." They take short honeymoon at the beach.
17. Salon. Agitated customer enters; wife soon follows and slaps him. Their name is Gora. They have three kids. He asks Antoine and Mathilde's opinion of his wife, talks of how exceptional she is.
18. Mathilde reading diet advertisement. Close up. Mathilde unbuttons dress; Antoine caresses her. Antoine: "Lose half a pound, and I'll throw myself under a bus." Mathilde: "The day you don't love me anymore, don't pretend you do.""
19. The awful boy, Edward, comes to the salon. Mathilde offers books with animals; Edward's mother: "Do you have any machine guns?" Antoine: "I'll show you something you've never seen." Dancing fingers. Antoine (voiceover): "We've no children. ... We've no friends. What could they add to our lives? ... [When couples spend time with others,] it's a proof that their love is lacking." They dance together. Mathilde: "I'm scared that someday you won't want to dance with me. ... I've never belonged to anyone." Antoine: "I ask nothing of you."
20. Customer Doneker, who sings short poems: "Some last, others vanish." Antoine caresses Mathilde as she works.
21. One fight in ten years. Mathilde annoyed by Antoine's comment about an actor. Antoine later that night smoking in salon. || As boys, Antoine and brother smoking and drinking until disturbed by parents.|| Mathilde comes down and smokes. Antoine: "We should smoke more often." Drinking cologne, dancing. Mathilde watches Antoine dance; he notices a crack in the ceiling.
22. Morning after. Antoine (voiceover): "None as happy ... nothing but death could part us." Antoine sees himself as boy peering into salon. Mathilde with very pale face.
23. Mr. Gora returns with kids; his wife has left him.
24. Nursing home with Isidore. Antoine plans to repaint ceiling. Isidore: "Too bad the last thing I'll see is crummy."
25. Salon. Debating customers. "Nothing's faster than death." Antoine: "Death is yellow and vanilla scented." ||Flashback to boy getting shampoo. As customers leave, Mathilde notes, "He's more stooped every day." Antoine: "He's a bit older every day." Mathilde: "A storm is coming." Storm. Mathilde to Antoine: "Sit where you always sit." They make love.
26. Mathilde leaves during storm, jumps from bridge.
27. Antoine watches police and ambulance. Her final note: she did not want desire to degenerate into mere affection. Mathilde (voiceover): "I kiss you now, so tenderly I'll die of it."
28. Salon.  Debating customers peer in at Antoine. Man enters, Antoine gives him shampoo, puts in tape, and dances. Customer joins him. Antoine turns off tape: "The hairdresser will be back."