J'ai épousé une ombre (1983)

Director:

Robin Davis

Writers:

Patrick Laurent (writer)
Cornell Woolrich (novel)

Release Date:

16 February 1983 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After a train accident, a woman survives and is mistaken for an other woman she just met on a train before the accident. |

Plot Keywords:

Train | Bordeaux France Vineyards | Remake | Foreign Language Adaptation | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Nathalie Baye	...	Helene
Francis Huster	...	Pierre
Richard Bohringer	...	Frank
Madeleine Robinson	...	Mrs. Meyrand
Guy Tréjan	...	Mathieu Meyrand
Victoria Abril	...	Fifo
Véronique Genest	...	Patricia Meyrand
Maurice Jacquemont	...	Attorney
Solenn Jarniou	...	Nelly
André Thorent
Humbert Balsan	...	Bertrand Meyrand
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean-Henri Chambois	...	Le médecin de famille
Arlette Gilbert	...	La sage-femme
Christine Paolini	...	L'infirmière
Marcel Roche	...	Pessac

Also Known As:

I Married a Dead Man
I Married a Shadow

Runtime:

USA:110 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Sara Films

Movie Connections:

Remade as Mrs. Winterbourne (1996)

Irish nadir.

This one may be the worst of all Irish's (Cornell Woolrich's) adaptation for the screen.Not because they have transposed the action from California to the vineyards of Bordeaux,but because they totally betrayed the novel.Robin Davis ,a thoroughly faceless director, could not render Irish's doomed atmosphere to the slightest extent.The dialogue is mean,poor,repetitive,Richard Boringer,the villain,is reduced to repeat almost the same lines three times.The conclusion becomes an happy end,forgetting the terrible final lines of the novel,something like:"We've lost.That's all I know.We've lost.And now the game is over." Irish's tragic tale of fatality is turned into a soap opera .Natalie Baye could have been the character,had she found the adequate team. The only comedian on the screen who generates some emotion is veteran Madeleine Robinson.This was a blockbuster in France,but ,alas, almost nobody read the book.Do it,and avoid this bland movie.

NB :A new adaptation ,"Mrs Winterbourne" (1996) ,is worse.The best,by far ,is Mitchell Leisen's "No man of her own" starring Barbara Stanwyck.