Folcoche

Paule Rezeau née Pluvignec, best known as Folcoche, is the villain of the famous french novel Vipère au Poing (Viper in the Fist) written in 1948 by Hervé Bazin, its two movie adaptations and its two sequels''. ''Folcoche is widely known in France as the epitome of the tyranical and abusive mother, to the point that her nickname has become a common synonym. Folcoche can also be regarded as a symbol of a woman embittered by a marriage of interest, who hates a family that she never desired.

About Folcoche
Vipère au Poing is both a largely autobiographical novel and a heavy criticism of the bourgeoisie of these times, which Hervé Bazin depicts as blatantly hypocritical, with appearances and interest being more important than the family members' wellbeing. While Folcoche plays the role of the story's villain, she is not the real target of the author's contempt and she can somehow appear as a product of said society.

Folcoche comes from a very rich family who imposed her a marriage with the respected, yet pauperized, Rezeau family. The Rezeaus have lived for many decades in a manor in the french countriside, the "Belle Angerie" with several families of farmers working for them, enabling them to live on this income. However, the family's wealth has grew thinier over the years, hence the marriage of interest between Jacques Rezau and Paule Pluvignec.

Folcoche herself may very well never have been truly loved by her parents, and certainly never loved neither her husband nor her sons, with the exception of her last born and favourite child Marcel, the only one for whom she seems to care a little. When married, Folcoche was dowed three hundred thousand francs, a great fortune that the Rezeau family needed to restore their past wealth, but which she has complete control of, one of the reasons why she is the one with the real control over the household.

Personality-wise, Folcoche is uncaring, bossy and dowright violent, dictating her rule to everyone, from the lackeys to her own family. She cannot stand insubordination or opposition and whenever she cannot prevent it, she is bound to get her revenge in some way or another. She is simply unable to care for anyone, even when she does feels genuine affection. One could theorize that Folcoche regards her children as reminders of her failed life, and doesn't want them to know the happiness she lacked. She is extremely avaricious and obstinate, and is also described as lacking hygiene. The only things important to her are her collections of stamps and of keys, which she always carefully locks away.

In Vipère au Poing
Considering the success of the novel, it was adapted twice as a movie in 1971 and 2004. In each of these adaptation, Folcoche was portrayed by a famous french actress, namely Alice Sapritch for the first one and Catherine Frot for the second.

In the beginning of the novel, Folcoche is living in China with her husband and her last son Marcel, who was probably born there. Jean Rezeau and his slightly dim-witted older brother Ferdinand live a happy childood in the "Belle Angerie", cared for by their loving grandmother. The story begins with the seven-years-old Jean, who captures and strangles a viper, comparing it to Hercules strangling the snakes sent to kill him.

Some time later, their grandmother dies and their parents return home. Both boys happily welcome their mother, who violently slaps them, irked by their noisy behavior, and their nightmare begins.

Their mother immediatly confiscates all their toys, before setting very strict rules for her three children to follow. They no longer have any leisure time, their activities are divided between their study under the direction of the clergyman and preceptor and taking care of the park and the house. She also fires almost every employee, including the children's nanny Ernestine, who tried to protect them. Moreover, she hits them and humiliates them on a regular basis with little reasons, and has them confessing their "wrongdoings" before her each night before going to bed. All this before their father's eyes, as the man is too meek to stand against his wife and devotes his entire time to his studies.

One night, she severly beats Ferdinand because she found his confession not honest enough. This particularly unfair punishment causes him to rant curses all over, calling her "folle" (mad) and "cochonne" (disrespectful word for "sow") and contracting it into Folcoche. A domestic war soon breaks out between Folcoche and her three children (including Marcel, who in spite of being favored and rarely struck also suffers from her unfairness) who begin to resist her, mostly by disobeing her behind her back. Jean eventually becomes the children's de facto leader, as he is the one who hates Folcoche the most. As such, he defies her by any mean he can and the irked woman starts concentrating her efforts on him. This situation lasts for several years, eventually concentrating on Jean's and Folcoche's personal feud, with the others characters being more and more reduced to the sidelines.

When Folcoche, who is very ill, departs for the hospital, the boys welcome their newfound freedom with joy and begin to hope that she will never come back, going as far as dancing and yelling "Folcoche va crever !" ("Folcoche's gonna die!") over and over. Unfortunatelly for them, she comes back and restarts her unfair rule, prompting the boys to make two attempts on her life, but not to avail.

Given that the boys have grew up, they no longer fear Folcoche's blows and no longer have to work in the park, forcing her to change her tactics. She tries to separate the three brothers, by keeping Marcel by her side and favorizing him even more, and also by punishing Ferdinand alone for a common "fault," but without success. Folcoche's attempts become increasingly exagerated but Jean keeps opposing her, having become addicted to his hatred for his mother. He eventually foils her attempts to accuse him of stealing her wallet and obtain what both he and her both to desire: his departure for a boarding school. This sounds like a victory but Jean knows that she broke something inside him and knows that he will never again be able to love or even trust a woman, nor even to enjoy a truly peaceful life and he ends the novel by this ironic sentence: "Merci ma mère, je suis celui qui marche une vipère au poing." (Thank you mother, I am the one who walks with a viper in the fist.")

La mort du petit cheval
In the novel La mort du petit cheval (The Death of the Little Horse) Jean and his brothers are attending a boarding school, but the distance isn't enough to protect them from Folcoche's hatred and tyrany. She still attacks Ferdinand and Jean, doing everything she can to make them fail their studies and their life. Jean, who severed the ties with his family, is not freed from his hatred and he tries to to humiliate her, but she turns his attempts against him. Even upon learning that Marcel is an adulterous child (which seems to explain why she cares more for him) he cannot use this new against her. The death of his father only makes Jean more estranged to his family that he already was and he has to struggle to gain the success that Folcoche is denying him; and more importantly, to become able to fully trust and love a woman.

Jean eventually manages to gain a situation and a loving wife and family, exiting at last from the shadow of his mother, while the unfortunate Ferdinand fails miserably and sunks into poverty. The death of the "little horse" mentioned in the title apparently represents the end of both Jean's childhood (the word "little") and the power that Folcoche had over him. (Horses being mostly domestic animals.) However Ferdinand's gloomy fate means that once again, Folcoche is only partially defeated.

Le cri de la chouette
Folcoche is seen in a much different, and sympathetic, light in the third novel Le cri de la chouette (The Cry of the Owl) being reduced to an old woman with nothing left but her bitterness. The "cry of the owl" is in fact Folcoche's sorrowful cry of agony, somehow referring to the superstition according to which an owl's cry foretells someone's death, and also being a pun, the french "vielle chouette" meaning both "old owl" and "old hag."

Jean is now a succesful man and a widower who got married a second time with a woman called Bertille, raising Bertille's daughter Salomé alongside his own children. Then one day, Folcoche in person comes to his place, having been betrayed and robbed of all her possession by Marcel, the only son she cared for. She comes in peace, asking for a place to finish her life. Jean initially refuses to have anything to do with his family anymore, but his wife and children take pity on Folcoche and manage to convince him to let her stay. Folcoche soon developps for Salomé the motherly love she always lacked, but Folcoche always being Folcoche, she also disturb the entire family life and causes many discord and mistrust. Even her genuine attempt to be likeable end up badly, as she never knew nothing but hatred and bitterness, leaving her unable to correctly express her affection. She covers Salomé with gifts and presents, but the young woman doesn't really mind and ends up eloping with her lover Gonzague.

Distraught, Folcoche relinquishes the ownership of the "Belle Angerie" to Jean and try to find Salomé, only to drop dead because of an embolism, with Jean as the only witness.

"Quand on m'enterrera, il y aura peut-être des joues humides, s'il pleut ! Sans doute se trompait-elle, la vieille chouette, en poussant ce cri désespéré." ("When they will bury me, perhaps there will be wet cheeks, if it rains! The old hag was doubtless mistaken when she made this desperate cry.") In this sentence, Jean quotes his mother's regrets about her loveless life (the "cry of the owl") and at the same times indicates that he has come into terms with their hateful history, even expressing some genuine grievance for this unfortunate woman, another sort of victim.