La Femme et le Pantin (1959)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 101 minuten
Alternative titles: The Female / Femmina / A Woman Like Satan
Country:
Italy / France
Directed by: Julien Duvivier
Stars: Brigitte Bardot, António Vilar and Darío Moreno
IMDb score:
5,5 (422)
Releasedate: 13 February 1959
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
La Femme et le Pantin plot
"In Her Hands Men Were Puppets...Loving Her Was Like Walking Blindfolded Into a Jungle!"
The daughter of a Frenchman living in Seville works as a flamenco dancer in louge nightclubs. She turns down a rich man's offer to become his lover. Because of this rejection, they grow closer to each other.
Actors and actresses
Eva Marchand
Don Matteo Diaz
Albert
Manuela
Stanislas Marchand
Berthier
Arbadajian
Reviews & comments
blurp194
-
- 5890 messages
- 4421 votes
BB #22
The film adaptation of the book La Femme et le pantin by Pierre Louÿs from 1898. But not the first, and certainly not the only one – there are versions from 1920, 1929, 1935, 1946, this one from 1959, one by Buñuel from 1977, and another from 1990 and 2006. But apart from that, it is actually exactly the same old story as that of Bizet's opera Carmen, and that was in turn based on the book by Prosper Mérimée from 1845, which has also been filmed dozens of times, and who had heard it as early as 1830 from Countess Montijo, pardon Doña María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closeburn y Grivegnée, Condesa de Montijo. And perhaps the same story was also the reason why those cigarettes were called 'Gitanes' and M. Ponty created his famous design for them. The one Manitas de Plata sang his famous song about—or wasn't actually all his music about it?
In this version, the old story yields delightful scenes with BB with her long golden-blonde hair in a red flamenco dress. And she dances quite creditably, too, although it cannot really hold a candle to a real flamenco dancer—the main reason for this, in my untrained eye, is that BB tries too hard to be 'beautiful,' whereas a real dancer, well, rises above that. Still, it is a pleasure to watch, and she is certainly beautiful—to the point that it is occasionally a shame when the story feels the need to move on to the inevitable ending—only to never actually get there in the end. A pity, a missed opportunity.
Apart from the story, I also found the other roles a bit lacking in sharpness; the punch is just a little too much at times. For a film that was titled A Woman Like Satan in the US, or Ein Weib wie der Satan in Germany, it is all a bit on the too tame side. Still, of the 22 BB films in my BB marathon, this one, alongside EDCLF, makes the biggest impression.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
