Customer Reviews

Devil In The Flesh: 1946 (France)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been looking for a copy of this movie since VHS and DVDs were invented!It is a nice copy in a reasonable transfer. Only fly in the ointment is that it is dubbed-HOWEVER it is one of the most sympathetic examples of this "process" and was supervised by the director himself with Micheline Presle dubbing her own performance into English.Fans of Tati be warned--he was a friend of the director and played a tiny "guest" role---but don't let that stop you from buying this wonderful film-Presle and Gerard Phillipe give career-best performances.Take my advice and take advantage of this rarity--if you love great films ,you wont regret it!Oh and don't bother with the recent soft-porn version of this title.

I am still looking for a DVD or even video of the original French version of this wonderful film that I first saw in 1947(when I was 18) at the Continental cinema in London. I do have a video of it but to my disappointment it is a copy and dubbed in English with American accents. It did not completely ruin the film for me but I find myself anxious to see the original before my time is up (I did say I saw it in 1947 ... )

This is one of the great romantic films, easily comparable with other forties classics like "Brief Encounter" and "Letter from an Unknown Woman". The great Gérard Philipe was never more memorable than here, conveying the first love of a 17-year old schoolboy to perfection - all the emotions fresh, uncalculated and sometimes terrifyingly violent. Micheline Presle is equally perfect as the young woman, marrying the wrong man for the best reasons, caught in an impossible situation as heady romance traps the lovers in more and more lies. The film producers deserve credit for not compromising the final bleak reality too much.

This early film of Gerard Philipe is hard to come by, therefor I ordered the English spoken copy. Copy and a bad one at that. Unlike dubbed films from Germany where they try to get actors with a similar voice as the real one, the English doesn't work for me. It should be mentioned that this is a copy, not an original, and the price ought to be accordingly.

Very involving melodrama of a17 year old boy having an affair with a
woman in her late 20s during WW I, while her husband is away fighting
the war.

Strong and relatively restrained performances, some inventive visual
and audio techniques, and a much more libertarian and realistic
attitudes towards sex and passion then most films of its day out-weigh
the slightly inevitable feeling to the story's twists.

But the dubbing, while well done, is still dubbing, creating a slightly false
air to the delicate performances. Worth seeing, but even more worth
seeking out the original French version, which was available, with English
subtitles on Amazon.fr among other places.

THE ORIGINAL FRENCH LANGUAGE VERSION WAS A VERY MOVING AND MOOD CREATING FILM.

THE DUBBING IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION TURNED IT INTO A SILLY, TRITE MOVIE NOT WORTH WATCHING FOR EVEN FIVE MINUTES.

5 STARS FOR FRENCH; 0 STARS FOR ENGLISH VERSION.

This is one of my favorite movies. That beautiful man, Gerard Philipe, is a pleasure to watch. But this "copy"
is dreadful, almost unwatchable. I should have sent it back but it still wove a spell. Only watched it once. Want to buy it?

LE DIABLE AU CORPS ('Devil in the flesh') (1946) was not directed by Jacques Tati but by Claude Autant-Lara. The version you delivered is not the French 'version original' but a version with American voices-over. Two crucial scenes are omitted (slaughtered by the censor?)

Fine old film. Trend setting in a way, but ill served by this poor transfer to digital media. Perhaps better original material was not available, but whatever reason, beware: this one sucks.