Customer Reviews

Ladies of the Bois de Bologne [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I hadn't seen this one before & now, thanks to Criterion, I've seen it 5 times in two weeks, that's how great it is, & that's how obsessed I am with Bresson's incredible, ultra-subtle style of speaking volumes with the unsaid, the unspoken in the images, or what Andre Bazin called the 'ellipsis.'

This film actually was a popular success at the time & is Bresson at his most romantic within his already estabished less-is-more strategy; a more passionate version of his later more austere visual style, here it flows like a great piece of music, like something out of the best Mozart or Beethoven (the beautiful soundtrack is also similar to 19th century classical mixed with Ravelian modernity), & stands-up to any number of repeat viewings, long after the very simple story of manipulation & revenge & all the Cocteau dialogue itself is known by heart. The cinematography is a breathtakingly shaded, soft, almost silent-film-like black-&-white by Philip Agostini (Le Jour se leve, Rififi) & though the camera moves constantly you are never ever aware of it unless you look for it; it never draws attention to itself.

The level of acting Bresson gets out of all four leads --Maria Casares, Lucienne Bogaert, Elina Labourdette & Paul Bernard-- is just spectacular, untouchable, unbelievably great. Maria Casares takes the cake though, she is just electrifying & oozes a level of mystery, mischief & upper-class-noir Bette Davis & Gloria Swanson never dreamed of (just compare this to the 'good girl' she played in 'Les Enfants du Paradis,' as Baptiste's wife).

The print they transferred to DVD isn't perfect like certain other restored films of this period such as "Les Enfants Du Paradis," & has quite a few tracer lines & imperfections through it which they cleaned up to the extent they could. However, this is still an essential DVD purchase for anyone even remotely interested in the great films of French cinema, & Criterion is to be commended for making it available to the public at large, so they don't have to wait 5 years for rare screenings to experience true art & true artists at work.

`Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne' was directed in 1945 by: Robert Bresson (Diary Of A Country Priest, 1950; A Man Escaped,1956; Pickpocket, 1959; Au Hasard Balthazzar, 1966) The screenplay was adapted from the Denis Diderot short story `Jacques The Fatalist' by poet, artist and director Jean Cocteau (La Belle Et La Bete, 1946; Orphee, 1949). This seems an odd coupling because their work as directors is in complete contrast and because of the dialogue it makes this film feels more like a Cocteau film. This is however was only Bresson's second film and what would be determined as Bressonian, his lack of theatre and visually austere style, would only be developed in his subsequent the film of the 1950s.

Bresson used actors (he would later use non-professional or `models') in this film the most notable being Maria Caseras (Le Enfants Du Paradis, 1945; Orphee,1949) whom astute critics at the time compared to Joan Crawford who had just starred in `Mildred Pierce' (1945,Curtiz) and the following years `Possessed' (1946, Bernhardt). It is that manipulative femme fatale role that is the defining quality of this, which could be considered, French film noir.

Cinematography was by Philippe Agostini who had shot the now famous poetic realist `La Jour Se Leve' (1939, Carne) a cinematic movement that was instrumental in the development of American film noir. He would later work on `Le Plaisir' (1952, Ophuls) and `Riffifi' (1955, Dassin) both being stylistically brilliant films.

`Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne' may in the end be good Cocteau but not so good Bresson.

Although the later, experimental Bresson films are great in their own right, this early film should appeal to everyone
who enjoy beautifully made conventional cinema. Jean Cocteau's
dialogue is witty, elegant, musical, stylized yet psychologically insightful. The scenes are as elegant, economical, and lucid as in the best of the well-made play tradition. Any playwright or screenwriter could take lessons from this film. Bresson brings his usual interest in religious issues (free will and the evil of the attempt of one person to have control over another) to the melodramatic story--melodramatic in the best sense, too, bringing to mind Henry James, Tennessee Williams, and Euripides. Maria Casares (the Poet's Death in Cocteau's "Orpheus") is brilliant--even iconic-- as a Dark Lady motivated by love to commit an awful (psychological) act of revenge. The gamine actress who becomes her unwitting instrument is rather irritating at first, but gradually grows on one in subsequent viewings. Besides his interest in spiritual issues, Bresson also brings an overall austerity of style to the film--which he abandons only in the final scene, whose lush cinematography (reminiscent of the cinematography in Ingrid Bergman's very similar sickbed scene at the climax of Hitchcock's "Notorious") heightens the amazing
emotional/spiritual impact of the finale. Lyrical, psychological,
classical, spiritual, deeply emotional--this film is one-of-a-kind.

For consistency of tone, measured pace, and assured craft, this is a very fine film. I think of the word EXQUISITE. I think of the word LOVE. I think of the word FRANCE. I remember some lines from this film -There is no such thing as love, just the proof of love-To own and revisit and so to be reminded of what the best of cinema has to offer.

Robert Bresson moved on from using name actors after this 1945 movie. However this is an excellent movie, a collaboration with Jean Cocteau and based on a story by Denis Diderot. I've watched it at least ten times and I never regret it. Maria Casares and Elina Labourdet are so good. It could've been a Greta Garbo movie as the liner notes state, but it's all Robert Bresson with the tensions of the opulence of Catholicism combined with the sparseness of Calvinism that his Jansenist background suggests.

At the time of writing, there are already 10 reviews of this DVD in the file, so a detailed analysis is unnecessary. Instead, I prefer to critique some of the earlier comments in light of my own perception of the film. Firstly, I could not fault the quality of the transfer, but I did consider the paucity of extras somewhat ungenerous. Secondly, I think that it is pure hyperbole to call this film a "masterpiece". Stylistically, it drifts between a period piece and film noire. It is a collaboration between a man of images (Bresson) and a man of words (Cocteau), and it seems that the latter wins out; his dialogue is quite brilliant: full of ideas and insights expressed in a direct and economical manner, although some of it is shaped in set pieces that create the vocal feel of a stage play rather than a movie. For a relative novice, Bresson's contribution is impressive: lean, elegant, austere, and on occasions sensuous, with just the right pacing to keep the tension high while allowing the twists and turns of the plot to sink in. His technical crew do marvellous work, lighting and shading the imagery in an exciting and poetic fashion.

Praise for the actors has been justifiably abundant, but in my view Paul Bernard represents a weak link. His hysterical and effeminate portrayal of the hapless Jean is no match for the steely razor-sharp Helene of Maria Casares, more in the mould of her Death in Orpheus than her Nathalie in Les Enfants du Paradis. But this leads to a very one-sided battle. The literary source of the film ( Diderot) overlaps that of Les Liaisons Dangereuses ( Leclos ). There are clear similarities in the seduction of a young girl planned by a couple of lovers whose affair is going sour, and they are the real protagonists rather than the agent and the object of seduction. The two film versions of the second that I have seen succeeded convincingly because the male characters ( Gerard Phillipe and John Malkovich ) were strong enough actors to stand up to Jeanne Moreau and Glen Close respectively. Not here, where Casares has it all her own way. The final point I want to make is the difficulty in accepting that the angelic Agnes was practicing as a prostitute. No visual evidence to this effect is presented, and her character as revealed to us would seem to rule this out. Why then her deep sense of shame? Were her vaudeville performances alone the cause of such remorse or was simply appearing on stage in Paris in the late 18th Century sufficient to be branded a whore? The modern dress adaptation of the parable conditions us to expect a more contemporary moral code, so that her behaviour appears silly and hysterical by our standards. Bresson and Cocteau should have dealt with this more convincingly. No masterpiece, but a fascinating psychodrama that has some of the characteristics of one.

This movie was set up in a way for me to not appreciate it. Based on the anecdotes I read about it how it flopped commerically and critically, I was not interested in seeing this so urgently. But eventually I got around to it and I'm so glad that I did!
I consider this to be one of Bresson's best!

Yes, the ending was sort of lame especially coming from a Bresson film and dialogue writings from Jean Cocteau, but that is simply a minor misstep! Overall, the story is tight and you get great acting performances especially from the thespian who plays the role of Helene.
This movie reminds me of one of those old Hollywood films from the golden age with the exception only that this one has a more European flair which makes the melodrama actually more digestable.

I'd recommend this onee.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne", also known as "Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne" or "Ladies of the Park" is a lesser known French film but is still good. It is based on the story "Jacques le Fataliste" by 18th century author Denis Diderot. It is a story of revenge about a woman scorned . When her boyfriend loses interest in her, she exacts revenge by matching him up with a former prostitute.The result: a scandal.

The film has some nice moments and could be described as a warning not to jilt your love interest.

The Criterion Collection edition contains a disappointingly small amount of special features. There is only a behind the scenes photo gallery and two essays in the liner notes.

This film is mesmerizing in its air of mystery and dark passions, done by Bresson obviously under Cocteau influence - the image of Cocteau's Orpheus immediately conjures up, with Maria Casares' dangerous beauty captivating from the first moments...
I love so much that the whole dry and moralistic spirit of the book which is the source of the story - "Jacques le Fataliste" by Denis Diderot - is gone. The book would speak at length about religion and virtue, in 18th century fashion, while here Cocteau left only the essence of love - passions of desire, of pursuit of happiness, of jealousy and revenge...

And perhaps the message is that once love is gone, it cannot be won back by evil, and even revenge could boomerang and hurt the perpetrator.

It is overall an incomparable film.

Helene (Maria Casares)is a passionate but also a cool woman who falls in love with Bernard . The sad day arrives when Bernard confess her he no longer loves her. This is the starting point of a careful revenge from the inner depths from her soul against Labourdette and her mother.
The script is overknown. But in hands of Bresson it became in another masterpiece in his career.
Bresson was a man concerned around the huge possibilities of visual expressions; so you may consider all his films as mude films with unnecesary subtitles.
Bresson belongs to a reduced category of giants filmakers such as Dryer, Murnau or Renoir but gifted of poetic atmosphere since the opening sequences of any of his previous or next films.
If you 're really interested in his filmography you'll find out such hidden treasures that you'll convince by yourself that Bresson is not only enoughly known even today, but he's a genius in the caleidoscopic sense of the word.
The minimalism is a concept that I disagree in Bresson's case. His spiritual concerns hardly may be entitled ; the genius is always contemporean and that is why he escapes to any reduced category.
This film must have been a true revelation in its age. Jean Delanoy for instance won a deserved triumph in Cannes with the Pastoral Symphony, for instance , but you feel that Delanoy is in a lineal level ; he's just a storyteller without the bliss of Bresson.
"The art and nothing more the art ; we live from the art for not dying from the truth" Nietszche.