Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

A society lady (Maria Casarès) engineers a marriage between her lover (Paul Bernard) and a cabaret dancer (Élina Labourdette) who is essentially a prostitute.

Not to say the acting isn't great or the direction isn't wonderful... because they both are. But this really comes down to a great script. This is the sort of bait and switch comedy that the French were great at. Diderot, Voltaire, Beaumarchais... there is a music to their writing that I have never found in any other nation's literature.

This translates fairly well to the screen, and is a great farce about social standing and romance. Now, whether Agnes is a prostitute or not, I don't know. Although she clearly was in the original story, some say she is not in the film. Regardless, the humor of the comedy remains the same.

Just after the Nazis left, Robert Bresson directed this, his second film. The story is an updated version of a tale entitled 'Jacques le Fataliste' by Denis Diderot (1713-1784), the famous radical thinker and encyclopaedist of the French Enlightenment era. Surprisingly enough, Diderot's novels and stories have been filmed 22 times between 1922 and 2013, and this one was filmed again in both 1967 and 2005. The reference to the Bois de Boulogne is because that used to be the traditional haunt of better class prostitutes. This film is a surprisingly formal, classical film for someone like Bresson. It is primarily notable for the frighteningly intense performance by Maria Casares as a beautiful woman scorned, who applies all of her energies to destroying the lover who has jilted her. It is a horrid story of relentless, maniacal feminine vengeance. Dialogue for the film was written by Jean Cocteau. Much of the film consists of recurring shots of the smouldering gaze of Casares, who scorches the viewer, the camera, the screen, and everything and everyone in sight with her sinister, scheming hatred and determination to obtain revenge. She would have been better off going for a walk in the Bois and calming down.

There is much to enjoy in this simple tale of the wrath of a woman scorned, but 'timeless', 'masterpiece' or 'spellbinding', I rather think not. It is beautifully shot with memorable performances and an effective if barely believable dialogue. Early on the power and determination evidenced by a mere look from Maria Casares does give one hope that this might have the power of a vintage Bunuel. Unfortunately, for me, Bresson is far more interested in humiliation and misogyny than real passion and convincing evil. I know allowances have to be made for the passing time and changes morals but surely even within the movie as it stands little really adds up. Something of infatuation is illustrated but where is the wonderful portrayal of deep love that some strange folk detect?

This is Robert Bresson's most stylish, and possibly his most romantic movie; it is an elegant and refined drama of jealousy and revenge. It is full of wonderful details, such as the scene of Elina Labourdette's night club act, or the wonderful moment later in the film where she bursts into dance because of her boredom with her confinement. Maria Casares's performance is in the grand tradition: no one can show steely determination and erotic frustration better. This is Bresson's first masterpiece, and was a failure upon release, but has come to be regarded as one of the great films in French film history.

Till 1950,Robert Bresson used professional actors.This explains why those previous movies are much more accessible -and thus generally overlooked by the "true" RB connoisseurs ,this naive audience who is still thinking that French cinema did begin with him;this mindless belief was fueled by the director himself whose contempt for his colleagues was notorious ...

And like it or not,It's one of his colleagues,Marcel Carné ,who provided Bresson with his star Maria Casarès,who was featured in the absolute chef-d'oeuvre of our French cinema "Les Enfants Du Paradis" .She played the part of Natalie and was not overshadowed by Arletty,which was quite a feat!

In "les Dames...",Casares was extraordinary: in her last scenes ,when she spits her hate ,her contempt and when she savors her vengeance as she says :"You've married a hooker! I had you marry a hooker!" ,she mesmerizes her audience.After her lover had left her,she really became a spider spinning her web in which the two women and her ex would be caught up.

Jean Cocteau wrote the dialog.Maria Casarès would become one of his favorite actresses:"Orphée" and "Le Testament d'Orphée".