A woman like Satan
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A woman like Satan |
| Original title | La Femme et le Pantin / Femmina |
| Country of production | France , Italy |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Julien Duvivier |
| script |
Albert Valentin Jean Aurenche Marcel Achard (dialogues) |
| production |
Christine Gouze-Rénal Fred Surin |
| music |
Jean Wiener José Rocca |
| camera | Roger Hubert |
| cut | Jacqueline Sadoul |
| occupation | |
| |
A woman like Satan (alternative title: Die Frau und der Jampelmann) is a French-Italian film by Julien Duvivier , set in Spain and based on the novel La Femme et le Pantin (also the original title of the film adaptation) by Pierre Louÿs . The book, published in 1898, was adapted for the cinema in 1935 with Marlene Dietrich in the lead role ( The Devil is a Woman ) . It is the story of a wealthy, aging man who falls in love with a much younger woman from a humble background who makes him suffer for it. The role of the dancer Eva gave Brigitte Bardot every opportunity to meet all the expectations of the general public associated with her image at the time.
action
The traditional summer festival, the "Feria", is celebrated on Seville's St. Sebastian square. Among the guests is the rich bull farmer Don Matéo. He keeps staring at a poorly dressed girl. However, he has no luck with his advances. During his explorations, he learns that the beautiful stranger is called Eva Marchand and that she lives in a primitive accommodation with her father, the disappointed French writer Stanislas Marchand. Eva has got it into her head to make a career as a dancer one day. Every now and then she allows the young tourist guide Albert, who has kept an eye on her, to accompany her to dance lessons; but nothing more is in it for him.
Matéo can no longer get away from the strange beauty with his thoughts. Again and again he creates new opportunities to see Eva again. Although she is quite indifferent to him, Matéo does not stop courting her. The more often the two meet, the more puzzling and exciting the girl appears to him. Little by little, Eva takes possession of her admirer and begins to humiliate him. Over time, Matéo made less and less effort to hide his inclinations from his paralyzed wife. When Eva asked him to introduce her to his wife, he wasn't afraid to invite her and her father to his estate for the feast of the blessing of the bulls. Eva dances unrestrained and provocatively in front of Matéo's wife.
Arabadijan has long urged Eva to perform as a dancer in his nightclub. Now she takes the position. Matéo spends night after night in the bar, although Eva never gave him any hope that she could feel anything for him. After one of her performances, he secretly follows her. She goes into another room and dances naked in front of a lustful audience. In vain she implores Matéo to give up her vicious life. Eva only has a smile left for this wish and goes on tour with her dance troupe. Matéo follows her and, more than ever, she makes him white hot by dancing passionately on stage with young Morenito. Matéo loses his temper and jumps onto the stage. The spectacle only ends when the police arrest him.
When Matéo is released the next morning, he looks like a different person; his clothes are torn, his face disfigured with wounds. Eva seems to have been waiting for something like this. She now meets him with overflowing tenderness and assures him of her love.
“... and she's been my wife for a year,” Matéo tells his listener Albert, the former tour guide, who has come to the French capital to see Eva again in a Paris restaurant. She has just finished her dance and is now turning to an athletic young man. “It started with Morenito. Now it's the one there until he gets tired of her again. Nevertheless, I stay with her because I love her. ”With these words, Matéo ends his story.
production
The outdoor shots were taken in the Camargue countryside in southern France and in the Spanish city of Seville. The buildings and the costumes were designed by the Russian-born film architect, set designer, costume designer and painter Georges Wakhévitch .
Brigitte Bardot devoted a separate section to the shooting of this film in her autobiography.
useful information
This film adaptation of the novel did not receive as much criticism as the version by Luis Buñuel published in 1977 under the title This Obscure Object of Desire .
criticism
The lexicon of international films found: "Duvivier does not unmask the Bardot myth of the 50s through distant irony, but confirms it through this banal story."
source
- Program for the film: Das Neue Film-Programm, published by Klemmer-Verlag, Mannheim, number 4238
Web links
- A woman like Satan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Trailer on kino.de
- Five pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ A woman like Satan. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 2, 2017 .