Eva (1962)
(Eve)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: bw 116m
Director: Joseph Losey
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, Giorgio Albertazzi
Synopsis:
A successful, but phoney, working class Welsh novelist lives comfortably off his earnings in Venice. Arrogant to the point of hubris in his relationships with women, and in danger at any moment of falling off the wagon, he is finally humiliated by his infatuation with a French casino hostess turned call girl.
Review:
Losey's European curio, based on a novel by James Hadley Chase and shot in crystalline black and white that drops in quality for some of the exteriors, is a sad affair. Despite the pretentious bookend voiceovers concerning the biblical Eden, the Eve character's vindictiveness seems wantonly directed at this man when it could be directed at so many others; Baker passes reasonably well as the 'hard man' egotist but is stretched by all the begging and pleading stuff; and then there's the euro-pudding aspect, the occasional dubbing, the loose plotting (would the couple really break into a random house just because of a shower?) and inconsistencies such as Tyvian missing the wedding and then not missing it. Nevertheless, there are enough intriguing aspects to it to make for reasonably absorbing viewing, and the basic idea seems to be Eve's follow-through on being blamed for Man's fall from grace: you want Eve, I'll give you Eve.
(Eve)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: bw 116m
Director: Joseph Losey
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, Giorgio Albertazzi
Synopsis:
A successful, but phoney, working class Welsh novelist lives comfortably off his earnings in Venice. Arrogant to the point of hubris in his relationships with women, and in danger at any moment of falling off the wagon, he is finally humiliated by his infatuation with a French casino hostess turned call girl.
Review:
Losey's European curio, based on a novel by James Hadley Chase and shot in crystalline black and white that drops in quality for some of the exteriors, is a sad affair. Despite the pretentious bookend voiceovers concerning the biblical Eden, the Eve character's vindictiveness seems wantonly directed at this man when it could be directed at so many others; Baker passes reasonably well as the 'hard man' egotist but is stretched by all the begging and pleading stuff; and then there's the euro-pudding aspect, the occasional dubbing, the loose plotting (would the couple really break into a random house just because of a shower?) and inconsistencies such as Tyvian missing the wedding and then not missing it. Nevertheless, there are enough intriguing aspects to it to make for reasonably absorbing viewing, and the basic idea seems to be Eve's follow-through on being blamed for Man's fall from grace: you want Eve, I'll give you Eve.
(Eve)
Country: FR/IT
Technical: bw 116m
Director: Joseph Losey
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, Giorgio Albertazzi
Synopsis:
A successful, but phoney, working class Welsh novelist lives comfortably off his earnings in Venice. Arrogant to the point of hubris in his relationships with women, and in danger at any moment of falling off the wagon, he is finally humiliated by his infatuation with a French casino hostess turned call girl.
Review:
Losey's European curio, based on a novel by James Hadley Chase and shot in crystalline black and white that drops in quality for some of the exteriors, is a sad affair. Despite the pretentious bookend voiceovers concerning the biblical Eden, the Eve character's vindictiveness seems wantonly directed at this man when it could be directed at so many others; Baker passes reasonably well as the 'hard man' egotist but is stretched by all the begging and pleading stuff; and then there's the euro-pudding aspect, the occasional dubbing, the loose plotting (would the couple really break into a random house just because of a shower?) and inconsistencies such as Tyvian missing the wedding and then not missing it. Nevertheless, there are enough intriguing aspects to it to make for reasonably absorbing viewing, and the basic idea seems to be Eve's follow-through on being blamed for Man's fall from grace: you want Eve, I'll give you Eve.