The loyalty of women

Movie
German title	The loyalty of women
Original title	La Fidélité
Country of production	France , Portugal
original language	French
Publishing year	2000
length	159 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Andrzej Żuławski
script	Andrzej Żuławski
production	Paulo Branco
music	Andrzej Korzyński
camera	Patrick Blossier
cut	Marie-Sophie Dubus
occupation
	Sophie Marceau : Clélia; Pascal Greggory : Clève; Guillaume Canet : Némo; Magali Noël : Clélia's mother; Michel Subor : MacRoi; Marina Hands : Julia; Édith Scob : Diane; Aurélien Recoing : Bernard; Edéa Darcque : Ina;

The church wedding was filmed in the chapel of the Chaalis monastery .

The Loyalty of Women is a 2000 French drama film starring Sophie Marceau . Andrzej Żuławski directed and wrote the script. Madame de La Fayette's novel La Princesse de Clèves , published in 1678, served as a template . Sophie Marceau plays a woman who is torn between two men but who never breaks the vow of marriage.

action

The young and beautiful photographer Clélia brings her mother to Paris to be able to support her in old age and her illness. She recently started working for a tabloid run by media mogul MacRoi, who woos her vigorously and intrusively, as do some of her colleagues in the editorial office. While strolling through the city, she meets the charming Clève, who will soon become engaged to a rich woman and enter into a marriage of convenience in order to save his family from financial bankruptcy and also to start a family of his own. He is fascinated by Clélia, they go into his apartment, make love and then say goodbye. When they meet again by chance, he forgets about his engagement and future plans with the sister of his CEO. The engagement is broken, the two marry, and she moves in with her mother. Clélia's mother dies during a weekend trip to friends.

The grief for her mother makes Clélia hard to bear everyday life, she seems nervous and restless. Némo, a rude, brutal-looking paparazzo whose drastic and sensational pictures have increased the newspaper's circulation, attracts her attention. Although both cannot keep their eyes from each other, and he is very direct in his courtship, she resists him with the vow of marriage in consciousness. They get closer, but there is little physical contact. Clève, whom she continues to win according to the conventions of the French bourgeoisie , senses that there is still another man in her life. She admits that she wants another man, but that doesn't matter to her marriage. Clève is deeply hurt. He is ready to release her to see her happy. But for Clélia the promise of marriage is binding and she stays with him.

Again and again, such as For example, at the wedding party of MacRoi's daughter Julia, at which Némo is also present, tensions arise between the couple. Clève suspects that it is Némo that his wife loves. He's jealous, loses his composure, and breaks down crying. Thereupon Clélia begins to use his name, her suspicions and distrust have lost her respect. Clève does not believe that there was no sexual contact between Némo and Clélia, no matter how often Clélia protests her loyalty. Clève feels unloved and travels disappointed. Since he wants evidence of Clélia's infidelity, he has Clélia shadowed. He receives a photo that shows the two of them in a familiar and affectionate situation, but in which Clélia actually rejects Némo for good.

Némo, who is on the trail of an international organ trade, is in mortal danger several times. When MacRoi publishes Némo's research, he is shot by killers. MacRoi's daughter Julia, Clève's former fiancé, takes over the management of the group and announces at a staff conference that the already dirty journalistic reporting will be tightened in the future. On the occasion, she dismisses Clève. When Clève leaves the office building disturbed, he falls down a flight of stairs and dies in Clélia's arms while being transported to the hospital. After the funeral, she disappears from Paris. She now lives in the mountains in the seclusion of a monastery , continues taking photos, memories of Clève accompany her. When she is in the convent's common room that evening, the title of a film appears on the television screen: La princesse de Clève , directed by Fernand Némo.

production

The budget for the film was 6.3 million euros. In Germany, Die Treue der Frauen was released on DVD on April 12, 2006.

Clélia's photographs in the film were taken by the German fashion photographer Donja Pitsch. Némo's photos are from the Parisian photographer Philippe Serieys, a former assistant to Helmut Newton .

Film music

The Polish composer Andrzej Korzyński was responsible for the film music . After Third Part of the Night (1971), The Devil (1971), Opętanie (1981), Der Silberne Planet (1988) and Chamanka (1995), The Loyalty of Women is the sixth film in which he has worked with Żuławski.

Soundtrack: Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent , Chanson by Léo Ferré based on a poem by Louis Aragon; Les feuilles mortes , chanson by Joseph Kosma based on a poem by Jacques Prévert; Mustapha , by Bob Azzam and Eddie Barclay; La chanson des vieux amants , by Jacques Brel and Gérard Jouannest; Quando El Rey Nimrod , arranged and interpreted by Robin Jeffrey and Roderick Skeaping

background

Madame de La Fayette's novel was filmed a total of four times in France:

1961 by Jean Delannoy : The Princess of Cleve
1999 by Manoel de Oliveira : The Letter (Franco-Portuguese coproduction)
2000 by Andrzej Żuławski : The loyalty of women
2008 by Christophe Honoré : The beautiful girl

Reviews

“At a very demanding level, this film presented its viewers with the behavior of people who are drawn to one another. [...] Because the emotions of the various characters are given free rein, the story appears above average authentically and honestly. Embellishments are far from the conceivable, so that neither very violent scenes nor extremely emotional erotic scenes are left out. The result is a shocking, but at times also fascinating story that knows how to captivate its viewer. "

- Kathrin Lang

“With this love drama, which is loosely based on Madame La Fayette's novel 'The Princess of Clèves', published in 1678, Andrzej Zulawski […] showed himself to be disrespectful, fascinating and polarizing as always in his late work. Elegantly staged, with the erotic Sophie Marceau in the lead role, Zulawski confronts his characters with traditional ideas of desire and loyalty and comes to unusual conclusions. "

- prisma.de