Almost a Bresson (no music).
Written by Jean Genet. A frustrated school teacher is setting fires in a small French village. She identifies a hunky Italian who sleeps around, and is cruel to his son in school. Then she has a wild night in the woods with the man. But then claims he's raped her, inciting the wrath of the villagers... What's going on? Did she want him and then want him out of the way so she could pretend it didn't happen? A strange story then, given top arthouse treatment. David Watkin's photography of the French countryside is refulgent, Tony Gibbs' editing brilliant (notice he gets a full screen credit) - there's even a sequence, one of those strange back-forward editing fold-ins (whatever that means) that is so recognisably Gibbsian - he is one of the only editors I can think of who has a recognisable style.
Dubbed English is distracting - presumably it was also filmed in French.
Jeanne Moreau is great. The Italian is Ettore Manni and his son is actually English - Keith Skinner.
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| Excellent use of the widescreen also |
A Woodfall production, One of Richardson and Gibbs' six collaborations. I'll know more when I've read Richardson's book.
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