The Blog
This blog will be all about film reviews. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies, writing reviews, and hopefully not spoiling any movies you plan to watch.
Director: Germaine Dulac Verdict: Meh 1922’s La Souriante Madame Beudet is a revolutionary film directed by a female and with a very heavy feminist focus. Through the use of special effects and a strong plot and acting by Germaine Dermoz help show a different side of society not supported in this time. The film follows Madame Beudet who lives in a loveless relationship with Monsieur Beudet who constantly teases her and tries to engage her in activities that interest him. However she turns him down, living in a semi-dream world. One night she is pushed over the edge and loads the pistol her husband uses as a gag, acting as though he is going to shoot himself. However she gets worried and tries to take the bullets out but not before he gets to it first. He points the gun at her jokingly and shoots but misses. He embraces her saying he could not go on without her. This film makes extensive use of special effects. Multiple dream sequences are used to show what Madame Beudet wishes her life was like. The camera work is very smart in what it chooses to focus on to give special emphasis on certain objects, people, or emotions. A common focus is on objects that foreshadow upcoming events or lead into other scenes. In one scene, the position of the pistol and the bullets is very clearly pointed out. This foreshadows the upcoming events with Madame. The use of “ghosts” is a lovely little tool to help portray Madame’s hope to live a different life. Dermaz was a lovely actress who was able to pull emotions together to make the plot work. Without her acting skills, it would never have come together. Her emotion was the real star of the movie as she was able to make her thoughts clear without any words. While it was not perfect and more dialogue cards would have helped, She was very clearly a trapped woman desperate to get out of the situation she was in. It highlighted the social issues of the time in that women did not have ultimate freedom and could not really make their opinions felt. This movie was a odd mix of being admirable and revolutionary, but just not fitting together. In the time, it was probably more understandable. However, now it is just lacking enough information for a modern audience to really relate to the movie.
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June 2018
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