La femme du bout du monde

The complete version of this film is forever lost.All that remains is a 64 min editing ,the plot of which is obviously difficult enough to follow.It features Jean-Pierre Aumont and Charles Vanel who were also the stars of Litvak's "l'Equipage"(1935).

The first sequence takes place in a desirable mansion where lieutenant Aumont is dancing with his fiancée;he seems a very jealous guy but the girl does not care and it is another man who takes her home.In the present editing it does not matter anyway for the fiancée reappears only at the end of the movie.

The lieutenant sails away;the ship-owner is to search radium ore on a lost island in Antarctic ocean.On this island there lives a strange woman with a fascinating look .In her seedy inn,all the crew is spellbound ,as if they were listening to the sirens ,invited in Circe's house.This is shockingly transcendent stuff ,with an extraordinary use of superimposed pictures .

The island,predating those of Robson's "isle of the dead" Powell's "edge of the world" or Antonioni's "l'avventura" ,remains mysterious ,sometimes wrapped in mist ;some sailors die ,we do not exactly what for.The ore ? Most likely the innkeeper for the whole crew seems to be in love with her.One of the final sequences shows one of the men confessing his crimes but his motives for his behavior remain obscure .

The missing parts of the film make it more disturbing more secret and more fascinating;a far cry from Epstein's realistic hymn to the sea "Finis Terrae" ,this one has something of Homer.

Last picture: the woman on her island and her child are searching the sea,waiting for another ship..