La souriante Madame Beudet

"La Souriante Madame Beudet" is mostly interesting and a classic because of its unusual and daring theme, for its time. Back in the '20's women rights weren't exactly regarded as the most important or relevant things, to put it mildly. Women were often oppressed and restrained in their marriage, to mainly only household chores, as is shown in this movie about a woman who is trapped in a loveless marriage.

Of course there is not much to the story, it's just purely about its theme. The movie follows the life of the husband and wife over a couple of days, in which she gets humiliated and has to do humiliating chores for her husband. She starts thinking about taking revenge but the intelligent woman is soon stricken with remorse. The movie shows the position of the woman in everyday life and it of course does so by exaggerating things to make its point. Normally we only know French movies for its perfect and romantic love stories. This is a whole different piece of cake.

The movie is made in a style-full fashion, which makes the movie really interesting to watch, even for todays standards. The movie has some interesting camera positions, such as a couple of over-shoulder shots. But also the storytelling is interesting and style-full, such as in the sequences were the husband is faking emotions and in the background the mirror opens with a couple of hand-puppets playing the exact same scene, with the words 'all theater' appearing. It makes the imaginative Germaine Dulac directing also one of the highlights of the movie.

Alexandre Arquillière is brilliantly repulsive as the husband and Germaine Dermoz is great as the obviously more intelligent wife. There are a couple of more characters but the movie does a good job at concentrating mostly purely on the two main character were after all the movie and its plot is all about of course.

In todays perspective, the movie is both interesting and beautiful to watch.

8/10

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I know a lot of what happens in marriages are weird, but to have a story where the husband continually as a sort of running gag puts a gun to his head and "pretends" he's going to shoot himself to control his wife or make her comply with him as he laughs his ass off, only for her (in her abject misery) finally just loads up the gun (it's usually blank) when he's not around is uh... jeez.

Thankfully, Dermoz gives an astonishing performance as maybe the first truly naturalistic depiction or a miserable feeling sort of wife, like it feels more modern than what was likely being done in the Silent era (nothing histrionic or melodramatic, just someone who looks so sad, even when she can cuddle with her cat), and Arquilliere as the husband is a brilliant scumbag.

I'm not sure what else I should take from this, aside from how the old phrase Something's Got to Give and that this coming from a female perspective gives it an extra charge of necessary vitriol. But there are some fascinating dreamlike visuals of the wife picturing her husband as a sort of laughing demon in her home, and how director Dulac has Dermoz brush her hair with such melancholy in front of the three mirrors are inspired.

I discovered this title from the 1001 Movie List and didn't know anything about it, so I watched it cold and had a hard time following along with the plot. Eventually, things made sense by the end of the movie, but I wanted to give the movie a fair shake. So, after doing some research, it turns out, The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923), was picked for the 1001 list, because of its importance to film history, most notably the fact, that the film is considered as being the first feminist film ever made, which makes sense, once the plot is established. So, I decided to watch the film again, at least to the point, where I wasn't lost anymore.

As I started watching The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923), a second time (It's only 42 minutes long), the plot unfolded better for me. Our Madame lives in a lifeless, loveless marriage with an annoying guy, who has a weird sense of humor. His favorite joke eventually plays a big role in the overall plot, but that's all I will say about that. In fact, it is that part o the film, that saves this dull, slow-starting film and finishes it with a decent ending. Germaine Dermoz is the actress, who plays the depressed Madame Beudet. She delivers a pretty good performance. She has the facial expressions down, that actors/actresses had to master during the silent era. The expressions work just as good as words do, if done right. That is what made the silent era great. Faces speaking volumes. Beudet is able to express to us, the sadness she is going through. Along with director Germaine Dulac's impressionist, avant-garde camera-work, the acting work of Dermoz and the interesting ending, The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923), ends up being just good.

PMTM Grade: 6.2 (D+) = 6 IMDB.

Smilling Madame Beudet was a good short film that is first in history to have a real feminist message in it and it probably inspired many films in future because of that.In this film we are watching a woman that is unhappy in marriage and she wants to get rid of her husband but unfortunetly for her she fails in the end.Characters were her just little explored cause runtime is short but it worked very well in end.Smilling Madame Beudet was a good short film but it wasnt one of best that i seen

The Smiling Madame Beudet / La Souriante Madame Beudet (1923) : Brief Review -

A great french expressionist silent feature and unlikely first truly feminist film. Even with unlikely probability of being first feminist drama The Smiling Madame Beudet can be termed as one at least for the French cinema. I remember watching D. W. Griffith's feminist films (in dramatic mode) made before this so i won't count it as one. The film is about a woman trapped in loveless marriage and it also explores several devastating moments from the woman's life. However, the captured version is soulless at the beginning, it gathers a solid momentum and connectivity in last 10 minutes. Those dream sequences, delusional obsession and never smiling face of the woman (even in the last frame of her) should be considered as a part of great filmmaking. And it is directed by pioneering 'avant-garde cinema' director Germaine Dulac, who, in my opinion wasn't able to put that famous non-narrative structure in this film. It was far away from intricate storytelling but that ultimately gave it an advantage to carry that it is rather more convincing and intense, exactly what the context required from it. The husband's character was well written if you see his own joke becomes the biggest turnaround of his life and at the same time the wife remains still even after wrong surmise and big tragedy. In a way i would have loved to see that much anticipated "Smile" on her face as mentioned in the title but there was not a single frame for it. Instead, it went in completely opposite direction to catch the realistic expressionism. So, yes it becomes an innovative product overall which is deservingly known by art cinema lovers and i would like to carry forward the recommendation.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest