Simone de Beauvoir

This feature-length documentary is essentially an interview with de Beauvoir, feminist, author, political activist and intellectual whose pioneering study of women and their role in society, "The Second Sex," helped lay the foundation for radical feminist theory. A vocal and highly visible member of France's left wing, she traces the shape of her evolution in response to the Spanish Civil War, World War II, The Chinese and Algerian revolutions and May' 68, recalled in the wide-ranging conversations with friends and colleagues including Jean-Paul Sartre, Alice Schwartzer, Hélene de Beauvoir, Claude Lanzmann, Olga Bost, Jean Pouillon and others. At the age of 70 de Beauvoir speaks with candor and charm, describing the differences between herself and Sartre in their university days, reflecting on the process of aging, and offering her insights on the social and political upheavals of our age.

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