There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that Robert Bresson (1901-1999) is one of the greatest film directors ever. He made only thirteen feature films. I haven't seen the first "Les Anges du péché"(1943) nor the 25-minute 1934 slapstick comedy "Les Affaires publiques" and find the two of his last eight films that I have seen off-putting. My regard for him as a master rests on the three austere films he directed during the 1950s: "Diary of a Country Priest" (1951), "A Condemned Man Escapes[/d]" (1956), and "Pickpocket" (1959). Alas, of these, only "Diary" is available on DVD.

There is a Criterion edition DVD of "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" (with the fewest extras of any Criterion edition I've encountered). "Dames" was shot in 1944 during the Nazi occupation, and can be characterized as the last Bresson film before he became the maker of "Bresson films" (the last studio film, the last one with professional actors). Much of the credit or (since the film was a commercial failure) blame for it at the time of its original release (in 1945, after the Nazis had retreated) went to Jean Cocteau, who contributed what was derided as artificial dialogue. The passage of time has made 1940s dialogue in American movies seem artificial, and the dialogue in "Les Dames" does not seem any more artificial than that delivered by, for instance, Bogart and Bacall.

The situation seems artificial—in an 18th-century French manner. The plot is lifted from a story within Jacques Diderot's dialogue Jacques le fataliste et son maître and has more than a little of the malevolence of Les liaisons dangereuses. It is a female vengeance film, though like Les liaisons dangereuses it also involves abusing the trust of a younger woman.

At the start Hélène (who would memorably play the princess/angel of death in Cocteau's "Orpheus" and "Testament of Orpheus" and had played the wife of the mime in "Children of Paradise") realizes her lover Jean (Paul Bernard, who had played one of the sons in "Mon père avait raison" before the war and in my view completely lacked charisma) is losing interest in her and pre-empts his rupture of their relationship by telling him she has fallen in love with someone else. He falls into the trap and expresses relief.

The rest of the movie (which only runs 86 minutes) is about Hélène's plot to humiliate Jean by marrying him off to a cabaret dancer who has enjoyed the "patronage" of many men—seemingly "tout de Paris" except Jean. It's easy to shrug at humiliating him. He lacks not only charisma but character and is a really annoying seducer with way too much self-regard. Although I think that Hélène is well rid of him and should move on, I accept that she is angry and wants revenge. However, I don't see that the dancer, Agnès (Elina Labourdette), deserves to be used as an instrument of revenge. (Looking forward in Bresson's career, I recognize that her suffering is minor compared to that of the lead in "Mouchette" or "The Trial of Joan of Arc"...) Although she is set up to counterfeit chastity, playing a reserved girl from the country, she is convincing. She does not seem debauched by her adventures in the skin trade and is reverting to being the country girl who came to Paris, and appears to be an innocent victim of the predatory Jean and the vengeful friend of the family (Hélène) who uses her to bait a trap to humiliate Jean. (However, given that she has been around the block a few times, Agnès is oddly unsuspicious of Hélène's helpfulness!)

The scenes are very well composed (sometimes noirish with the scenes in the bois remining me of Tourneur's "Cat People") and the camera is more fluid than in Bresson's later work, but the people whom he was showing are less interesting than in the three classics focused on isolated men made during the 1950s. Moreover, "Les dames" lacks the wit and visual flourishes of Cocteau's own films ("Beauty and the Beast" before "Les Dames" and "Orpheus after it; it's more like the bewildering "The Eagle Has Two Heads"). My sympathy (as must be obvious) is with Agnès and I guess she views the ending as being a happy one, though I find the ending simultaneously hard to believe, perfunctory, and dubiously a "happy ending" (though all too Hollywood an ending!)

"Les dames" is a curiosity for admirers of Bresson, Diderot, and/or María Casares (and/or what kind of French films were permitted during the occupation). I wish Criterion would undertake "Pickpocket" and, perhaps, "Au hasard Balthazar," which I've never seen. Good news is that New Yorker Video is supposed to release a DVD of and "Un condamné à mort s'est échappé" later this month.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age