Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945)

A society lady engineers a marriage between her lover and a cabaret dancer who is essentially a prostitute.

Director:

Robert Bresson

Writers:

Robert Bresson (scenario & adaptation), Denis Diderot (story),

Stars:

Paul Bernard, María Casares, Elina Labourdette

Cast

Cast overview:
Paul Bernard	...	Jean
María Casares	...	Hélène
Elina Labourdette	...	Agnès
Lucienne Bogaert	...	Mme. D
Jean Marchat	...	Jacques
Yvette Etiévant	...	La bonne
Marcel Rouzé
Bernard La Jarrige
Lucy Lancy
Nicole Regnault
Emma Lyonel
Marguerite de Morlaye

Storyline

Realizing that her lover (Jean) is losing interest in her, a society lady (Hélène) gets revenge by tricking him into marrying a former prostitute (Agnès). After the wedding Helene tells a stunned Jean about his wife's secret past, but the ending has more than one surprise twist. This is a modernized but fairly faithful adaptation of the story of Madame de La Pommeraye from Denis Diderot's novel Jacques le Fataliste.

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Plot Keywords:

prostitute | marriage | wedding | dancer | cabaret dancer | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

3 April 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ladies of the Park

Filming Locations:

Studios Pathé-Cinéma - 6 rue Francoeur, Paris 18, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Raoul Ploquin

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Agnes is dancing in the club, her costume changes between when she is dancing and when she goes to her dressing room. The lower edge of the costume on her thighs varies between a straight edge and a ruffled one.

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Quotes

Hélène: It happened gradually with my realizing it. I couldn't laugh. I couldn't sleep. I wondered if it was your fault, but no. You're as wonderful as ever. You stay the same. I am the one who has changed. I asked myself over and over. Why am I no longer impatient? Why does my heart not leap up when he arrives? The sound of the elevator's approach no longer thrills me.
Jean: Hélène!
Hélène: It's a horrible discovery, but I wish to be frank. My heart is drifting away from you. I'm ready for your reproaches, ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

User Reviews

Masterpiece

It is Bresson's most accessible, classically structured film. Taken from Diderot, it is a story of love, betrayal and revenge. Why a masterpiece? Because it is one of the few films which manage to give the viewer a true sense of what love is and/or should be, of what it may achieve, avoiding the corny lexicon of romance, turning the potentially stale conventions of melodrama into an altogether plausible concoction of events, gestures, actions directly speaking to our experience. In its perfectly self-contained way it keeps showing us again and again that people may actually love each other, in spite of all.