La femme publique (1984)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Andrzej Zulawski

Writers:

Dominique Garnier (novel)
Dominique Garnier (scenario)

Release Date:

16 May 1984 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An unexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'...

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Female Rear Nudity | Evil Man | Psychological Experiment | Doppelganger

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Valérie Kaprisky	...	Ethel
Francis Huster	...	Lucas Kessling
Lambert Wilson	...	Milan Mliska
Patrick Bauchau	...	Le père d'Ethel / Ethel's Father
Giselle Pascal	...	Gertrude
Roger Dumas	...	André, le photographe
Diane Delor	...	Elena Mliska
Jean-Paul Farré	...	Pierre
Olivier Achard	...	Le premier assistant réalisateur
Yveline Ailhaud	...	Rachel
Michel Albertini	...	Maurice
Marianne Basler	...	Une jeune anarchiste
Nathalie Bécue	...	L'habilleuse
Lucas Belvaux	...	François
René Bériard	...	Mgr Shlapas

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | West Germany:18

Company:

Hachette-Fox Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Les témoins (2007)

Soundtrack:

Grande messe en ut mineur kv 427

Zulawski and Kaprisky in a nice slice of Gallic insanity

Andrej Zulawski's most famous film "Possession" was released more or less in English, but still barely made a lick of sense, so I didn't have much luck with this one which is so far only available in French or (in the version I saw)Italian. This may not matter though as much of the film is taken up by scenes of the gorgeous Valerie Kaprisky dancing around buck naked or having sex with various men. Model/actress Kaprisky plays a model/actress (there's a stretch). Her "modeling seems to consist mostly of her stripping to the skin and doing bizarre dances to horrid Europop numbers while a creepy, elderly photographer snaps pictures of her impressive torso. Maybe it's the awful music, but these sessions inevitably seem to end in her or the photog. having some kind of physical or emotional breakdown. Zulawski uses the same confusing temporal dislocation here he used in "Possession". In one session the photographer apparently drops dead from a heart attack, but in the next he is not only alive but apparently fit enough to go crazy, grab Kaprisky by the throat, and start shoving dollar bills in her mouth (and other, off-screen orifices)for some reason...

Meanwhile her character is also appearing in a legitimate movie (apparently some kind of costume drama). The director of the movie is bedding Kaprisky, but he seems more interested in trying to cause her to have some kind of real-life emotional breakdown for the sake of his "art" (ironically, Isabel Adjani had accused director Zulawski of trying to do the exact same thing to her in "Possession"). She also becomes involved with another crew-member who is apparently one of those vague French Marxist revolutionaries of that era (an era in which the US military was still protecting bourgeois France from all those "Marxist revolutionaries" over in the USSR). Naturally, a whole lot of pathos ensues.

Kaprisky gives a very committed performance, even if she is definitely no Isabel Adjani. This is probably her best film (although that's not necessarily saying much). The movie really isn't anymore non-sensical than "Possession" (in fact, it would probably be less so if it had English subtitles),and like that film it's at least not boring for one minute. If you take all that for a recommendation, by all means help yourself to this little slice of Gallic insanity.