Our Body

The best documentaries go beyond our desire to be entertained by a subject, like the way something unfamiliar can be made to seem fascinating to a casual observer. A deeper dive brings us into closer contact with ourselves, affecting and often changing our perceptions and feelings about our lives. Our Body, a film by French director Claire Simon, is such a film, a remarkable study of women’s relationship to their own bodies, as seen through the many stories of patients and doctors in the gynecological ward of a Paris hospital.

We witness, without narration, doctors explaining and helping patients in abortion care, fertilization, pregnancy, childbirth, gender reassignment, ovarian and breast cancer, and other aspects of women’s health. We also see treatments, operations, recovery, and women honestly speaking about their histories and challenges.

Perhaps the first thing one would notice about this film is the care, honesty, and attention to detail of the physicians interviewing and advising patients about all the practical aspects of whatever procedure is being planned or discussed. This reflects on the integrity of the particular hospital that agreed to be filmed (Simon, of course, obtained permission from everyone who appears in the movie). It is not, we learn, universally the case in French hospitals. We are seeing a comparatively ideal environment in which the trust between doctors and patients has been earned and maintained. In fact, at one point later in the film, we’re shown a street demonstration against the incidence of sexual abuse of female hospital patients in France, showing us that there are challenges facing the health care system there that are similar to those in other countries, including the U.S.

But the main effect of witnessing the excellent treatment standards in this particular gynecology hospital department, is to reveal, without any sensationalism or special emphasis, basic facts concerning women’s bodies and bodily functions, along with the unvarnished truth about what constitutes proper medical care for women. Our Body is three hours of patient, low-key, observational documentary cinema. In a society where women’s bodies tend to be either glamorized or hidden, this film presents the reality with complete clarity and frankness. There is much to be learned.

Much of the picture was shot during the height of the pandemic, with everyone wearing masks. In the clinical interviews, the doctors ask their patients to remove their masks briefly, along with them, so they can each see to whom they are talking. The doctors are not judgmental. In the case of abortions, the tone is carefully objective, describing the needed preparations and actual processes involved. Several births are shown, from a fairly easy one with an attendant midwife, to a delivery by C-section. Transgender patients are informed about possible issues with their hormone treatments. We are shown the entire IVF process, including the sperm donors, and the harvesting and implanting of eggs. Behind the scenes we see medical testing and research, and the essential work of the nurses.

The camera simply records everything, and hides nothing, but three quarters of the way through we get a bit of a surprise. The director, Claire Simon, becomes one of the players in this true life drama. Our Body is an absolute revelation, an act of freedom from the secrecy and shame that can hamper our health care decisions.