Love, women and soldiers
Love, Women and Soldiers is a three-part French-Italian episode film shot in 1952/53 about the fates women suffer in or as a result of wars. Directed by Jean Delannoy , Christian-Jaque and Marcello Pagliero . The international cast is led by Martine Carol (as Lysistrata), Michèle Morgan (as Jeanne) and Hollywood star Claudette Colbert (as Elisabeth).
action
Elisabeth
The American Elisabeth Whitefield, war widow of a GI from the Second World War, goes on a pilgrimage to Europe in the early 1950s. She wants to visit the theaters of war in Italy, where her husband fought a few years ago and finally died in February 1944, and transfer his remains to the United States. During her visit, Mrs. Whitefield meets Angela, the farmer's wife, who once gave shelter to Elizabeth's husband. During a brief period of happiness, the American and the Italian had an affair that resulted in a boy. Elisabeth really wants to take her husband's son with her to America, because she has nothing else left from her husband. But Angela has her pride and wants to keep this love child with her, even if he could certainly fare better in the USA. Elisabeth returns to the USA alone and leaves her husband's bones with his people: close to Angela and his son.
Jeanne
France in the year 1430. The Hundred Years War rages between France and England , large areas are devastated. Unlike Elisabeth in the previous story, Johanna, the maiden of Orléans, is not a victim of the war, but has dedicated herself to it with enthusiasm. In a moment of critical questioning, Jeanne suddenly no longer hears the inner voices that used to tell her what to do. The men she commands no longer want to follow her, explains her captain Baretta in a fortified farmhouse. But giving up is out of the question for Jeanne. A child who has just died in the farmhouse is brought back to life by her so that it can at least be baptized before it finally passes away. Now the astonished soldiers around her begin to believe again in Jeanne's “divine mission” and follow her into the next tumult of the battle. But Joan of Arc knows that her days are numbered and faces her fate.
Lysistrata
After Aristophanes . Ancient Greece in 411 BC. Athens is at war with Sparta again, and all able-bodied men are fighting on the battlefields. Unlike Elisabeth in the first episode and Jeanne d'Arc in the second, Lysistrata is neither a victim nor a supporter of the war. She fights him - with all means at her disposal. She and the other women want to refuse their husbands as long as they give themselves to killing instead of love. After a while the men are actually so sexually starved that they give up fighting and killing and return home remorsefully to their wives. These in turn are finally ready again to give them their love and attention.
Production notes
Love, Women and Soldiers was filmed at different times. It began Jean Delannoy , who directed his Jeanne d'Arc episode between October 21 and November 10, 1952. He was followed by the director of the Italian episode, Marcello Pagliero, who shot Elisabeth from March 30th until May 1953. Christian-Jaque directed his Lysistrata episode from June 30 to July 31, 1953. The film premiered on January 21, 1954 in Italy, where it was released under the title Destini di donne . The French premiere fell on January 27 of the same year. The film opened in Germany on October 1, 1954.
Elio Costanzi , Serge Pimenoff , Jean d'Eaubonne and Ottavio Scotti created the film structures. Pierre Balmain designed the costumes for the first episode Elisabeth , Christian Dior and Raymond Faure those for the second episode Jeanne and Marcel Escoffier those for the final episode Lysistrata .
Reviews
The lexicon of international films states: “Like all episode films , this one is not free from arbitrariness, and direct comparison makes the differences in staging even clearer. Some narrative clumsiness tarnishes wit and satire. "
Leonard Maltin found the film to be a "pompous, cumbersome story trio".
Individual evidence
- ^ All shooting dates according to Jean-Claude Sabria: Cinéma français. Les années 50. Paris 1987, no.276
- ↑ Love, women and soldiers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 1, 2019 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin: Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 301
Web links
- Love, Women and soldiers in the Internet Movie Database (English)