Robert Bresson's Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) provides a study in manners at the tail end of the Second World War. It's worthwhile not so much because of the stakes involved, which seem paltry when set against global catastrophe, but because of the memorably stylized performance by María Casares as Hélène, a scorned woman with the wherewithal to exact fiery revenge -- like a barrage of Congreve rockets fired at a dried out wooden ship. Her target: the feckless Jean (Paul Bernard). The trap: Agnès (Elina Labourdette), a wartime prostitute who is more or less pimped out by her mother, a woman of former country wealth now decimated but aiming to survive.
We've seen this sort of scenario dozens of times, though other renditions tend to add outright murder into the mix. I like the fact that this one doesn't -- it becomes more interesting, more caught in a time zone of its own.
Jean Cocteau worked with Bresson to adapt Les dames du Bois de Boulogne from a section of Dennis Diderot's 18th century novel Jacques le fataliste et son maître. Ultimately, though, María Casares steals the show with her fierce persona.
Today's Rune: Journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment