Mademoiselle (1966 film)

Infobox Film
name = Mademoiselle


image_size = 200px
caption = Poster
director = Tony Richardson
producer = Oscar Lewenstein
writer = Marguerite Duras, Jean Genet
narrator =
starring = Jeanne Moreau
music = Antoine Duhamel
cinematography = David Watkin
editing = Sophie Coussein
distributor = Lopert Pictures Corporation
released = January 1967
runtime = 105 minutes
country = FRA, UK
language = English language
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0060648

Mademoiselle is a 1966 BAFTA winning French - British drama film directed by Tony Richardson. The dark drama won a BAFTA award and nomination and was featured in the 2007 Brooklyn Academy of Music French film retrospective. Jeanne Moreau plays an undetected sociopath and arsonist, a respected visiting schoolteacher in a French village.

Plot

In a French village, Manou is an Italian logger, virile, with a broad laugh. He can't say no to women's sexual invitations, and jealous villagers blame him for recent fires and a flood. He is innocent; the culprit is "Mademoiselle," town schoolmarm, a recent arrival admired by all, but sexually repressed and obsessed with Manou. She sets the first fire accidentally and throbs watching a shirtless Manou perform heroics. Subsequent catastrophes are no accident and express her mad passion for him. Also, after befriending Manou's son, she turns on the lad, making him miserable and raising his suspicions. Her designs, Manou's frank innocence, and the town's xenophobia mix explosively.

Overview

As the film begins, Mademoiselle is shown opening floodgates to inundate the village, so there's never a moment in the film that the audience, like the villagers, believe she's a normal upstanding citizen. But understanding her motivation is impossible though the structure of the film; she has no cause for revenge, no personal material gain, no increased standing in the community from her furtive crimes.

At first her evil acts, which lead to deaths, seem catastrophically unfair to the afflicted villagers. She's seen as a a beautiful woman but by her deeds render her a Fury or hag out of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane or some similar psychological horror tale.

Cinematography

The noir widescreen black & white photography, & a good deal of night or storm scenes, underscores a mood of evil. And as the village becomes corrupted by their own terror & close in on their own evil act of mistaken vengeance, it begins increasingly to seem like Mademoiselle is an actual embodiment of demonic passions sent by greater powers to visit the punishments of Job on an unsuspecting village. A test they thoroughly fail to pass.

cript

Having a script written by Marguerite Duras based on a story by Jean Genet, Mademoiselle could pass as an arthouse film, a sexual thriller, or subtle horror, it is seen by many critics as a work of art.

Cast

*Jeanne Moreau ... Mademoiselle
*Ettore Manni ... Manou
*Keith Skinner ... Bruno
*Umberto Orsini ... Antonio
*Georges Aubert ... René
*Jane Beretta ... Annette (as Jane Berretta)
*Paul Barge ... Young Policeman
*Pierre Collet ... Marcel
*Gérard Darrieu ... Boulet
*Jean Gras ... Roger
*Gabriel Gobin ... Police Sergeant
*Rosine Luguet ... Lisa
*Antoine Marin ... Armand
*Georges Douking ... The Priest
*Jacques Monod ... Mayor

Release

The film was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment in the USA in 2002.

Awards

The film one the BAFTA award for Best British Costume going to Jocelyn Rickards.

David Watkin received a nomination BAFTA Film Award: Best British Cinematography.

External links

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