Product Description

This unique love story follows the maneuverings of a society lady as she connives to initiate a scandalous affair between her aristocratic ex-lover & a prostitute. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 03/11/2003 Starring: Maria Casares Run time: 85 minutes Director: Robert Bresson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57355 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2003-03-11
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com
Robert Bresson's second movie, a melodrama of love, jealousy, revenge, and redemption, is haunted by an uneasy tension between Bresson's ambitions and his directorial compromises. A beautiful but jealous high-society woman (Maria Casarès) tries to spark her longtime lover (a rather wan Paul Bernard) into a declaration of commitment by staging a breakup, and to her horror he agrees to the separation. Seething with resentment, she plots an elaborate vengeance involving getting him to fall in love with a young dancer who "entertains" to support her poverty-stricken family ("I'm no better than a prostitute!" she declaims to her mother), leading to a public disgrace--a grand melodramatic gesture presented with quiet understatement. Using professional actors and a script polished by Jean Cocteau (adapted from the novel Jacques de Fataliste et son Maitre by Denis Diderot), the film is marked by the stylized dialogue and psychologically shaded performances of classical French cinema which Bresson's later films reject. The director's hand can be seen in the austere sets and compositions, the tempered performances, and the moving, spiritually rich conclusion. While it's not Bresson's best work by his own admission, he tames the drama with a rigor that fully flowers in his next film, Diary of a Country Priest. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

10 Stars; a masterpiece; One of the great French films
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.

More Cocteau than Bresson
`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.

Somewhat obscure but impressive
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.