Isabelle Eberhardt

The story of the brief life (1877-1904) of French-Russian-Swiss traveler and writer Isabelle Eberhardt, this dark little film is almost impossible to find. I saw it years ago on IFC a couple of times, but haven't been able to find it in any other format.

This movie is wildly uneven in style, but does manage to touch on many of the salient points of Isabelle's life, including her relationship with the French military governor of Morocco, Lyautey, who is played here by Peter O'Toole in a clever bit of casting. We all associate O'Toole with the desert and Lawrence of Arabia, and the scenes here of the two of them walking together, she in her stylish new Arab threads, seems to be almost a passing of the torch. The fact that the real Isabelle died long before Lawrence ever set foot in Arabia is irrelevant. This is purely a gesture of cinematic homage.

I also like the way the film drives home the desperation of Isabelle's poverty throughout life, and the way that she and her fellow souls are constantly pushed to the margins by the need to keep sickness and starvation at bay. Paul Schutze's moody film score helps these scenes immensely.

This movie is a minor gem, imperfectly realized, maybe, but unique. I wish somebody would see fit to release it on DVD.

It is a shame the production was unable to afford decent lighting, most of the action takes place in semi-darkness, not what you expect from a desert movie. If you don't know anything about the life of Isabelle Eberhardt you will be totally confused about what is happening, an extraordinary life reduced largely to an unconvincing love story. The continuity - or lack of it - leaves the film with a first draft feel - one minute the heroine is jail the next she is riding across the desert (before quickly disappearing into another black hole). Another problem is that Peter O'Toole is the only one in the caste who can act. A truly dreadful movie - the real IE deserves so much better

I was thinking about the people who have moved me in some way in my life and I remembered this little film, which didn't leave much of an impression here in Sydney unfortunately. Nevertheless, it is a representation of a real person, and what a life she lived! Most of us haven't the courage or daring to be one's true self in the way that Isabelle was. Thank God for a few brave souls to pave some less-travelled roads. Yes the film may have been slow-moving and a bit vague at times but I believe that it in some way reflected the mind of Isabelle herself, for things were not so clear cut for her, and she must have felt the irony of being able to be passed off as both genders at a time when roles were clearly defined. No, I was very glad to see a film such as this made. They number too few! (7/10)

Watching this slow French-Australian production is interesting if only to learn about the true story of a woman whose several books about colonial Algerian became legendary. Even the story of how the books came to be published is interesting.

Per a website entry by © Robert Bononno 1988, Isabelle Eberhardt was the child of an aristocratic German mother and a Russian father, a former priest in the Russian Orthodox church, a friend of Bakunin, a "philosopher, scholar and polyglot." (Eberhardt is claimed to have been Rimbaud's daughter). She converted to Sufi Islam and was fluent in many languages.

The movie is a little pedantic about justice and colonial oppression, and the character development is a not clear. However, this fictionalized snapshot of a period not widely known by American audiences is worthwhile.

A small role by Peter O'Toole is welcome.