Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51767 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-30
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 83 minutes

Synopsis
LES DAMES is the sole collaboration of two French cinema giants: Robert Bresson and Jean Cocteau. Cocteau wrote the wonderfully poetic dialogue for the film, while Bresson scripted and directed. The film bears strong connections to other classic works by both men. Like other Bresson heroes and heroines, Helene is obsessed, a scorned woman attempting to manipulate her ex-lover. The treacherous Helene (Maria Casares) financially supports Agnes (Elina Labourdette), a young dancer with a "bad reputation." Helene plots to make Jean (Paul Bernard), the man who recently broke up with her, fall for Agnes--and then reveal to him the "secret" of Agnes' tawdry past. Jean easily takes the bait, but Agnes isn't willing to play along. Agnes finally responds to Jean's overtures, as Helen lies in wait, eager to expose Agnes's past and wreck Jean's life.
Helene's sense of having a "mission" is reflected in the prison break planned by the hero of A MAN ESCAPED, and the quiet crimes committed by the hero of PICKPOCKET. The obsessive and potentially dangerous way that Helene's ex rushes headlong into his passion for the one-time "tramp" prefigures the classically-themed romances in Cocteau's LA BELLE ET LA BETE and ORPHEE. One element in the sumptuously photographed LES DAMES became common in both artists' repertoire: the presentation of characters who behave as if they're in a dream, sleepwalking their way to potential disaster or salvation.

Customer Reviews

"Les Dame du Bois de Boulange"
Bresson's "Les Dames..." is not an easy film to enjoy at first viewing. It takes, much like Renoir's "Rules of the Game", repeated viewings in order to appreciate the richness and depth in the film texture. Based on a novelette (the telling of gives you the feeling that its none was of none other)it tells the story of an upper class "lady" Helene (Maria Casares) having what on the surface is a mutual break up with her long time lover, Jean. But having only dared him to reveal his feelings by telling him that she is no longer in love with him (when watching the film again one sees the honesty in Casares' Helene which tells us differently, pleased he states that there is no love loss then and that they are now both free to move on to other people (he even dares to recommend someone for her). In a cold whisper later on she declares "I'll have my revenge". Her 'revenge' is deliberately setting her now ex-lover with an ex-cabaret dancer, Agnes, whose Mother Helene was once on good terms with. Helene acts as an angel of mercy by buying them out of the squalor that they find themselves in and cunningly tries to strain the attraction between Jean and Agnes. In an act of 'sincere' honesty she warns Jean of the possible danger of marrying the girl. He does, and Casares reveals her true form to him in anexcellent scene where he is having trouble backing his car out of a packed car park, always reversing to allow Helene deliver another devestating revelation, tha his wife is a prostitute, his reputation is ruined, that he knows not of a woman scorned.
What the main attraction to this small film is its dialogue by Cocteau (so poetic that getting to read its subtitles during the film as well as it being spoken increases ones appreciation for it); the subtle play of shadows and camera by Bresson (in only his second film outing, the next would be "Diary of a Country Priest"); and the central performance of Maria Casares (perhaps best known for her roles in "Les Enfants du Paradis" and as Death in Cocteau's "Orphee",Cocteau later described her as his favourite actress) in only her second film role. All the performanes in the small cast (made up of only the main characters, there are very few extras imployed in the film) are excellent.
Unlike what he would later employ, Bresson filmed this entirely in a studio at at the of World War II. It was not a success initially but time was good to this exceptional film and Cocteau later exclaimed that it had won its battle in the "courts of appeal". "Les Dames du Bois de Boulange" is not for everybodys taste, there is little action and the plot is focused on primarily one topic, but is told through such a rich texture of artistry that it becomes irresistible.

Feels more like 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 a good Cocteau film and not Bresson.

The DVD transfer is adequate and does not have much in the way of extras.