Film Review
The Devil is a Woman is the
last of five films that director Josef von Sternberg made with Marlene
Dietrich who, by this stage, had become the ultimate in glamour
icons. The film is both a résumé and parody of their
previous collaborations, with Dietrich once again playing the seductive
femme fatale that no man can resist. But here the approach is far
more subversive and playful. Dietrich's character is a truly
heartless queen, picking up and discarding lovers with the casual
nonchalance of a butterfly happily flitting from one flower to another,
whilst powerful, self-respecting men fall helplessly at her feet, like
moths drawn to the flame.
When it was first released, the film was misunderstood and was not a
great success. Even today, opinion is divided as to whether
it matches up to the level of von Sternberg's other great films
exemplified by
The Blue Angel (1930)
and
Shanghai Express (1932).
It is certainly very different to the director's previous Hollywood
offerings, having much more in common with the work of the avant-garde
filmmakers of the silent era. The highly stylised art
design and expressionistic photography create a world of dreamlike
artificiality, within which the grotesquely caricatured
opéra comique characters fit
perfectly. The whimsical style is at first off-putting but
quickly becomes strangely alluring as we become conscious of the
tragedy that lies beneath the light-hearted surface pastiche - the
tragedy that we humans are governed by forces over which we have
absolutely no control.
The Devil is a Woman was based
on the celebrated novel by Pierre Louys entitled "The Woman and the
Puppet", which the great Spanish director Luis Buñuel later
adapted as
Cet obscur objet du désir
(1977), with Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina time-sharing the part of the temptress Conchita.
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In the midst of a busy carnival in Spain, a young revolutionary named
Antonio is attracted to Concha, a beautiful and elusive woman.
His friend Don Pasqual knows about Concha and warns him to leave her
alone. Years ago, when he was a respected military man, Don
Pasqual also fell in love with Conca. He gave her money, but she
taunted him, and finally ran out on him forever. Antonio is so
moved by this story that he decides to return to France alone, but he
can't resist seeing Conca one more time...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.