Product Details

• Actors: Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie, Walter Sande
• Directors: Jean Renoir
• Producers: The Woman on the Beach ( Una Mujer en la playa ), The Woman on the Beach, Una Mujer en la playa
• Format: Import, PAL
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Manga Films
• Run Time: 68 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000X1GK4G
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,268 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), Spanish ( Mono ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: The Woman on the Beach is a 1947 film noir directed by Jean Renoir. It is a drama about a conflicted U.S. Coast Guard officer played by Robert Ryan and his pursuit of the wife of a blind artist.

...The Woman on the Beach ( Una Mujer en la playa )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Renoir at his best but definitely ahead of its time, November 6, 2007

By 

Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Woman on the Beach ( Una Mujer en la playa ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

The Woman On the Beach isn't top drawer Jean Renoir, but his near-noir psychodrama has much to recommend it despite the inevitable tinkering at the hands of RKO. There's some striking imagery and design (not least the shipwreck on the beach where the illicit lovers meet) and Robert Ryan gives a strong performance as the vulnerable lead despite having the odd line of inane on the nose dialogue like "Let's face it, I'm not well!" - but then, this IS a character haunted by nightmares of romantic liaisons at the bottom of the sea amid the skeletons of his drowned shipmates. And that's before he gets reluctantly drawn into Joan Bennett and her blind artist husband Charles Bickford's marital problems. Not that Ryan, falling for Bennett despite the fact that her vocal delivery often turns into a deadening drone, believes Bickford's blind, and it's not long before trying to prove it by taking him for a walk along the edge of a cliff...

It's hard not to see this as a major influence on Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon, so perverse is the couple's relationship of mutual dependency and loathing, although at heart it's about the need to burn the ghosts of the past, whether it be driftwood from a sunken ship or something more personally damaging. The ending is either brilliant or disappointing, and you probably still won't know which after seeing the film.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Obsecure? Maybe. But it is more than worthwhile., February 12, 2010

By 

Keisuke Kawasaki "kumasan" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Woman on the Beach ( Una Mujer en la playa ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH is generally regarded as one of the great film master Jean Renoir's lesser works. Because it is somewhat obscrure in development of the story line and the characters. Renoir tried to say something worthwile but at first glance, it might be hard for the viewers to receive clear message from the film.

However, significance of this film lies on that particular difficulty. The cinema was meant to be complex and puzzling. Due to its sophisticated complexity, THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH quite frequently makes us think and feel about our real self. Three main characters are all obsessed with fear one way or another, but in the same time, they are trying to get out from their obssession and struggle to seek truth of themselves.

You may wonder how three main characters managed to accomplish this serious task within little running time as 71 minutes, but by the end, they managed to overcome their problems rather convincingly. Thanks to strong characterizations by three leads(Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, and Charles Bickford) and sensible direction from Jean Renoir.

I would rank THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH as the Renoir's hidden masterpiece. It is quite intelligent, powerful, experimental, and totally memorable.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating film noir!, January 5, 2010

By 

John Howard Reid (Wyong, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Woman on the Beach ( Una Mujer en la playa ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

I said in my book, Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills, that this excellent Manga DVD version was indeed a fascinating movie experience. And, looking at the film again last night, I stand by that statement. True, it is not one of Renoir's "top three" (as Jacques Rivette often claimed), but it is a very faithful transcription of Mitchell Wilson's novel, "None So Blind". The three principal characters, memorably played by Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett and Charles Bickford, are all blind in one way or another. But they are real people, and Renoir brilliantly isolates them not only from each other but from the harshly atmospheric beach locations in which the movie is so powerfully set.