Steps without a trace
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Steps without a trace |
| Original title | À double tour |
| Country of production | France , Italy |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Claude Chabrol |
| script | Claude Chabrol Paul Gégauff Stanley Ellin (novel) |
| production |
Raymond Hakim Robert Hakim |
| music | Paul Misraki |
| camera | Henri Decaë |
| cut | Jacques Gaillard |
| occupation | |
| |
Web of Passion (Original title: À double tour ) is a French-Italian film directed by Claude Chabrol in 1959 based on the novel The beautiful lady next door ( The Key to Nicholas Street , 1952) by Stanley Ellin . Jean-Paul Belmondo first became known to a wider audience through this film.
action
Although they are married to each other and have large estates, Henri Marcoux and his wife Thérèse only feel mutual hatred. Her husband is cheating on her with the beautiful Léda he wants to run away with. Thérèse knows about it, but officially her children don't. Son Richard likes to listen to classical music, daughter Elisabeth has László as a friend, but her mother doesn't like him. Divorce is out of the question for Thérèse.
Henri can no longer take the situation. He decides to show himself in town with Léda and to go away with her the next day to clarify the situation. Back at Thérèse, there is an argument. She offers him more freedom if he supports her in keeping László away from Elisabeth, but he does not consent.
Shortly afterwards, Léda is found murdered. The police soon arrest Roger, the housemaid Julie's lover. But Julie is sure that it wasn't him, and the also conspicuous László is looking for the real culprit, because his drunk friend Vlado has seen him.
In an interview with László, Richard says that they both knew that it was not László. László therefore suspects Richard and puts him under pressure until, after a scuffle about László's promise to remain silent, he admits the crime to his family.
A flashback describes how it happened: Richard has heard his parents' argument in the next room and then runs to Léda, who lives in the neighborhood. He seems a little mentally confused and eventually strangles her. While his mother Thérèse is against it, his sister Elisabeth and László encourage him to reveal himself to the police. He asks his father for forgiveness, which the latter cannot (yet) grant him, and goes to the police, which ends the film.
Reviews
In the lexicon of international film , the film review says that “against the background of a deceptive Sunday idyll in southern France”, the director constructs “a precisely calculated game of power, family terror, hypocrisy and bourgeois rituals.” The “caustic moral criticism” is apparently hidden behind it distant observation. "Chabrol's obsession with instincts also gave the film a few erotomaniac scenes of undoubted charm", is the comment of the Spiegel on April 27, 1960. "As in a German silent film fateful drama", all the characters would seem "more or less disturbed".
Awards
Venice International Film Festival 1959:
- Coppa Volpi for Madeleine Robinson as best actress
- Nomination for a Golden Lion for best film
literature
- Stanley Ellin : The beautiful lady next door . 2nd Edition. Scherz Verlag , Bern 1983, ISBN 3-502-50882-8 (English: The Key to Nicholas Street .).
Web links
- Web of Passion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Steps without a trace in the online film database
- Web of Passion at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steps without a trace. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Steps without a trace (France) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1960 ( online ).