La souriante Madame Beudet
1923/FR 38m Dir: Germaine Dulac Key Cast: Germaine Dermoz, Alexandre Arquillere
Based on: The Smiling Madame Beudet by Denys Amiel (Play)
This is one of the first feminist films and focuses on Madame Beudet (Germaine Dermoz) and her husband (Alexandre Arquillière) who is an utter bastard.
Monsieur Beudet thinks it's hysterically to put an unloaded revolver to his head and threaten to shoot himself, as well as generally being a controlling and unloving husband. Understandably, Madame Beudet becomes fed up of him and loads the revolver in the expectation he will accidentally kill himself. She has a sleepless night and regrets her decision but before she can remove the bullets her husband is playing with the gun again. This time he aims at her but misses.
The ending is great because he assumes that Madame Beudet was trying to kill herself with this method rather than him. It's really brings home the message that he puts himself first and has no understanding of what his attitude is doing to his wife. He even says "what would I do without you?", worrying more about the effect her death would have on her and not even considering the mental state she would have been in to make such a decision.
In the middle of the film there's a slightly trippy dream sequence as Madame Beudet regrets her decision and it's technically really well done with apparitions and the earliest cinematic use of slow motion I've seen. In terms of production, this is really excellent.
It's big problem though is that it's essentially only a short and I felt so much was missing. An extended story could have explained how this couple were brought together and could go some way to explain why the husband is the way he is. I'd also have liked to see the relationship be less isolated and seen perhaps an insight into her parent's marriage or have a discussion with friends feeling the same way. All in all, it just feels like this is only the beginnings of a story and whilst it's good it feels like there's a lot missing.
Technically excellent and great to see some early feminist cinema but it could have been expanded so much further.
Comments
Post a Comment