Boule de Suif (1945)
(Angel and Sinner)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 103m
Director: Christian-Jaque
Cast: Micheline Presle, Louis Salou, Alfred Adam, Jean Brochard
Synopsis:
During the Franco-Prussian war an assortment of passengers travel from Rouen to Dieppe by stagecoach, among them a prostitute whose plumpness has earned her the nickname 'ball of suet'. Already ignored by her fellow passengers, she is treated to their manifold contempt when at a staging post she refuses a Prussian officer's demand that she sleep with him before he will let them go on their way.
Review:
The role of Maupassant's lionhearted and patriotic tart was one of Presle's finest hours, and she certainly shows up her co-stars every bit as much as her namesake. This wartime adaptation unfortunately cannot help but tack on a happy ending to the author's bitterly cynical one, and ends on a patriotic note with its closing title: the Judith of Bethulia analogy used by her travelling companions to persuade her archly to 'sleep with the enemy' is transformed by her slaying of the colonel into a triumphant affirmation of its validity. Not otherwise a bad example of the 'cinéma de qualité', marred as usual by the tendency of the actors to play to the gods.
(Angel and Sinner)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 103m
Director: Christian-Jaque
Cast: Micheline Presle, Louis Salou, Alfred Adam, Jean Brochard
Synopsis:
During the Franco-Prussian war an assortment of passengers travel from Rouen to Dieppe by stagecoach, among them a prostitute whose plumpness has earned her the nickname 'ball of suet'. Already ignored by her fellow passengers, she is treated to their manifold contempt when at a staging post she refuses a Prussian officer's demand that she sleep with him before he will let them go on their way.
Review:
The role of Maupassant's lionhearted and patriotic tart was one of Presle's finest hours, and she certainly shows up her co-stars every bit as much as her namesake. This wartime adaptation unfortunately cannot help but tack on a happy ending to the author's bitterly cynical one, and ends on a patriotic note with its closing title: the Judith of Bethulia analogy used by her travelling companions to persuade her archly to 'sleep with the enemy' is transformed by her slaying of the colonel into a triumphant affirmation of its validity. Not otherwise a bad example of the 'cinéma de qualité', marred as usual by the tendency of the actors to play to the gods.
(Angel and Sinner)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 103m
Director: Christian-Jaque
Cast: Micheline Presle, Louis Salou, Alfred Adam, Jean Brochard
Synopsis:
During the Franco-Prussian war an assortment of passengers travel from Rouen to Dieppe by stagecoach, among them a prostitute whose plumpness has earned her the nickname 'ball of suet'. Already ignored by her fellow passengers, she is treated to their manifold contempt when at a staging post she refuses a Prussian officer's demand that she sleep with him before he will let them go on their way.
Review:
The role of Maupassant's lionhearted and patriotic tart was one of Presle's finest hours, and she certainly shows up her co-stars every bit as much as her namesake. This wartime adaptation unfortunately cannot help but tack on a happy ending to the author's bitterly cynical one, and ends on a patriotic note with its closing title: the Judith of Bethulia analogy used by her travelling companions to persuade her archly to 'sleep with the enemy' is transformed by her slaying of the colonel into a triumphant affirmation of its validity. Not otherwise a bad example of the 'cinéma de qualité', marred as usual by the tendency of the actors to play to the gods.