#78: Madame De...

Madame De... (Ophuls, 1953)

The movie starts with the main character surrounded by luxury going through her jewelery trying to find something she wants to sell. She settles on selling her diamond earrings. She doesn't need the money, because anything she wants will be provided by her husband. The attempted sale of the jewelery was an attempt at independence and to escape the spiritual possession by her husband.

This is the major theme of the movie. Her husband is not abusive; he handles everything with the detached dignity of the upper class. She goes to the theater and, to justify the earrings disappearing, tells her husband she dropped them and they were stolen. When the man she sold the earrings to comes to him the next day, he quietly gives them off to a mistress he's cutting off and sending to Constantinople. He chooses the way of handling his wife's deception in the most emotionless and unscandalous way possible, which is how he handles everything in the movie. She repeatedly makes attempts to find things for herself outside the role of 'The general's wife', but nothing makes her happy, and her husband continuously finds quiet dignified ways to pull her back into his possession.

While the characters are very well and subtly defined, that only goes so far in terms of actual enjoyment of the movie. The character development is only interesting to a point, and it doesn't have much of an entertainment factor either. So while I would call it a good movie, it's one you'll only enjoy if you're a really big old school buff.

Rating: *** / 5

40/101