Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962)
(Therese)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 109m
Director: Georges Franju
Cast: Emmanuèle Riva, Philippe Noiret, Edith Scob, Sami Frey
Synopsis:
Having been acquitted of poisoning her husband, an unhappily married woman looks back on her adolescence and early years of wedlock to try and make sense of her reasons for such a criminal act.
Review:
Despite situating Mauriac's story in the present, Franju's film undoubtedly benefits from having the author co-adapt his own work for the screen. The screenplay omits little of any importance and, even though this leads to one or two scenes that are clumsy in their brevity, the retention of the novel's flashback structure and use of a considerable amount of interior monologue to replace the more literary 'style indirect libre' count in its favour compared with the later version by Claude Miller. Riva is a far more affecting Thérèse, freighted with the melancholy baggage of her roles in Hiroshima, mon amour and Léon Morin, and Franju's camera is nicely mobile and selective, never losing sight of the place of the natural world in her story. Jarre's music can be distractingly romantic but, on balance, is another asset of a considered and sensitive production.
(Therese)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 109m
Director: Georges Franju
Cast: Emmanuèle Riva, Philippe Noiret, Edith Scob, Sami Frey
Synopsis:
Having been acquitted of poisoning her husband, an unhappily married woman looks back on her adolescence and early years of wedlock to try and make sense of her reasons for such a criminal act.
Review:
Despite situating Mauriac's story in the present, Franju's film undoubtedly benefits from having the author co-adapt his own work for the screen. The screenplay omits little of any importance and, even though this leads to one or two scenes that are clumsy in their brevity, the retention of the novel's flashback structure and use of a considerable amount of interior monologue to replace the more literary 'style indirect libre' count in its favour compared with the later version by Claude Miller. Riva is a far more affecting Thérèse, freighted with the melancholy baggage of her roles in Hiroshima, mon amour and Léon Morin, and Franju's camera is nicely mobile and selective, never losing sight of the place of the natural world in her story. Jarre's music can be distractingly romantic but, on balance, is another asset of a considered and sensitive production.
(Therese)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 109m
Director: Georges Franju
Cast: Emmanuèle Riva, Philippe Noiret, Edith Scob, Sami Frey
Synopsis:
Having been acquitted of poisoning her husband, an unhappily married woman looks back on her adolescence and early years of wedlock to try and make sense of her reasons for such a criminal act.
Review:
Despite situating Mauriac's story in the present, Franju's film undoubtedly benefits from having the author co-adapt his own work for the screen. The screenplay omits little of any importance and, even though this leads to one or two scenes that are clumsy in their brevity, the retention of the novel's flashback structure and use of a considerable amount of interior monologue to replace the more literary 'style indirect libre' count in its favour compared with the later version by Claude Miller. Riva is a far more affecting Thérèse, freighted with the melancholy baggage of her roles in Hiroshima, mon amour and Léon Morin, and Franju's camera is nicely mobile and selective, never losing sight of the place of the natural world in her story. Jarre's music can be distractingly romantic but, on balance, is another asset of a considered and sensitive production.