Marie-poupée (1976) User Reviews

Dull, creepy and immobile, like its subject matter

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 12 September 2016]

"Marie, the Doll" is a weird, quasi-art-house, quasi-horror movie. It's about a disturbing relationship between two dysfunctional people who each compliment the other's strangeness. But what does the movie think about their situation? Why was it deemed worthy of an almost two hour long movie? The movie doesn't exploit the situation for thrills or psychological exploration. It just shows it, leaves it as it is for about an hour and a quarter, and then provides a rushed conclusion I'm struggling to remember the details of.

Being left with a creepy relationship like the one at the centre of this movie - a guy who loves dolls falls for a girl who behaves like one - becomes pretty unpleasant when the movie does nothing with it. This can work with social problems that are portrayed realistically: the movie serves a purpose by informing you like a documentary. But I don't believe the situation at the heart of this movie is common enough to stand on its own, immobile, for almost two hours.

A dysfuncional relationship.

[zutterjp48 · 7/10 · 5 June 2022]

Marie, a 17 years old adolescent has lost her parents and ilves with her grandparents. She has a friend called Biclo who visits her sometimes.

One day Marie enters into an antique shop full of dolls, she speaks a little with Claude, the owner of the shop who asks her if she likes dolls. Claude becomes fascinated by Marie and soon will meet her again and invit her to his mansion..They get married and Claude invites Marie for a ritual in which Marie is dressed like a doll. They travl together during some weeks, Claude gives her a lot of gifts,Marie is happy when Claude is at home. But little by little Claude is more absent and when he comes back he is not interesting in Marie. The youg wife is suffering because she needs more love. A worker on the farm ,Sergio, has seens Marie crying and doesn't understand why Claude is treating so badly his young wife.

A quite dramatic and sad story: good performances of of Jeanne Goupil and André Dussollier.

Fairly Messed Up

[jfgibson73 · 5/10 · 26 April 2020]

This is a very slow moving story where not a lot happens for much of the time. A girl walks into a doll shop, and the owner who collects dolls, becomes transfixed by her. She is 17, but acts like a child, we are told, because she lost her parents at a young age. They get married and he treats her like a doll. She eventually wants more, but he doesn't really show affection beyond playing their doll game. She starts to spend time with one of the servants, who seems nice at first but eventually assaults her. She runs off and hits her head on a tree. We don't see what happens to her after that, but we are told at the end she died from "being a doll." Also, it is revealed that her husband had something going on with little girls. So it turns out to be a very messed up movie in the end, it just doesn't feel that a lot happens until the final act.

A curious movie

[searchanddestroy-1 · 13 June 2014]

What a weird french drama which I was not prepared for. Very unusual, oscillating between comedy and drama and finishing as a surprising tragedy. The ending reminds me a Twilight Zone episode, I don't remember which one. A film about fetishist Dussolier married to a sort of baby doll. A girl whom he is in love with only because her resemblance to a doll. Our male lead is a doll collector himself...

Good acting, not run of the mill as we could expect from a french comedy from the mid seventies. The director Joel Seria made interesting movies, good french stuff, such as LES GALETTES DE PONTAVEN.

A Worth gem.