Married to a dead person

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Movie
German title Married to a dead person
Original title J'ai épousé une ombre
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1983
length 110 minutes
Rod
Director Robin Davis
script Robin Davis, Patrick Laurent
music Philippe Sarde
camera Bernard Zitzermann
cut Marie Castro Vasquez
occupation

Married to a dead (Original title: J'ai une ombre Epouse ) is a director Robin Davis staged French thriller - drama from 1983. The screenplay is based on the novel I married a dead man by William Irish .

action

Frank travels through France with his lover Hélène in search of work. When Frank once again loses his job in an argument with his employer and Hélène reproaches him for it, the choleric throws her out of the car and disappears, never to be seen again. Heavily pregnant Hélène met the young Meyrand couple on the train. The French-American Patricia Meyrand, who is also heavily pregnant, is on the way with her French husband Bertrand to his parents, who own a winery near Bordeaux and whom she has never seen before. When a mishap happens to Hélène and she also feels sick, Patricia offers her to rest in her train compartment. The train crashed the same night. The Meyrands are among the dead.

When Hélène comes to, she is in a hospital. Her son was born by caesarean section after the accident . It seems strange to Hélène that the nurse and the attending doctor address her as Patricia Meyrand. However, your indication that there is a mix-up is not taken seriously. When she is also visited by her "father-in-law" Mathieu Meyrand and his son Pierre, the homeless Hélène feels that there is a place of security for her and her son when she plays the role of Patricia.

When she arrives at the winery, she immediately takes her frail "mother-in-law" Lena Meyrand into her heart. For her part, Hélène feels more and more drawn to her "brother-in-law" Pierre. That arouses the jealousy of Fifo, the spirited daughter of the cellar master , who is having a fuss with Pierre. Pierre also begins to fall in love with Hélène. Lena installs Hélène and her son against Hélène's opposition to inherit two thirds of her fortune. One day Hélène received anonymous letters, each containing only one sentence: "Who are you?", "Where are you from?" The unsettled Hélène suspects Fifo and Pierre to be the authors of these letters.

But the letters are from Frank, who suddenly appears at the winery and poses to the Meyrands as an old friend of Hélène / Patricia. At a later meeting, Frank Hélène feigns affection, but is rejected. Finally he lets the cat out of the bag: he demands money. Immediately afterwards he goes to Lena and tells her the whole truth. Frank threatens a scandal if he does not receive a million francs in hush money. When Hélène shows up later, Lena collapses. She can't manage to cast off Hélène, whom she loves.

Hélène makes an appointment with Frank and kills the unsuspecting person with a targeted dagger stab in the heart. Pierre finds them on the beach and removes Frank's body by putting them behind the wheel in his car and sinking them over the cliffs in the Atlantic . Hélène wants to face the police. That same night, Lena has her notary record a confession by confessing to Frank's murder and having her son Pierre entrusted the removal of the body. This admission will only be made available to the investigative authorities in the event that innocent people are suspected of murder. Hélène hugs the seriously ill Lena. In the final scene, Pierre, Hélène and their little son are in the middle of the vineyard at sunset and are hugging.

criticism

“Psychological thriller with an interesting starting point, whose initial intensity and tension are increasingly giving way to an intimate play that is no longer completely convincing. Still a delightful modern adaptation of the refined "Black Series" thriller by Cornell Woolrich . "

Awards

synchronization

Dialogue director: Joachim Kunzendorf

role actor German Voice actor
Hélène Nathalie Baye Monica Bielenstein
Pierre Francis Huster Stefan Gossler
Frank Richard Bohringer Kurt Goldstein
Lena Meyrand Madeleine Robinson Eva Katharina Schulz
Mathieu Meyrand Guy Tréjan Edgar Ott
Fifo Victoria Abril Heike Schroetter
Patricia Meyrand Véronique Genest Joseline Gassen
Bertrand Meyrand Humbert Balsan Hans-Jürgen Wolf

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Married to a dead person in the Lexicon of International Films

Web links