Cousin Bette

Cousin Bette is a 1998 British–American comedy-drama film starring Jessica Lange in the title role and is loosely based on the novel of the same name by the French author Honoré de Balzac. Plot The wealthy Hulot family gathers at the deathbed of their matron Adeline (Geraldine Chaplin). Adeline's husband, the Baron Hector Hulot (Hugh Laurie), has squandered their fortune with his long standing competition with the wealthy Crevel to have the most extravagant mistresses, and plunged them heavily into debt. Adeline's Cousin Bette (Jessica Lange), a poor and aging spinster, has spent her life supporting Adeline and her family with little return, and promises the dying Adeline that she will watch over the family, especially Adeline's young, unmarried daughter, Hortense (Kelly Macdonald). Because they were poor as children, their family chose to sacrifice Bette and launch only Adeline into an advantageous marriage due to her greater beauty, a fact which has caused Bette much hardship and extreme resentment in life. Believing the death of Adeline would result in reward at last, Bette is infuriated when what she believed to be a proposal of marriage and an offer of a true place in the family from Baron Hulot is, in fact, an offer of employment to work as their (unpaid) housekeeper.