Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Les dames du Bois de Boulogne
Directed by	Robert Bresson
Produced by	Raoul Ploquin
Written by	Robert Bresson
Starring	Paul Bernard María Casares Elina Labourdette Lucienne Bogaert
Release date(s)	September 21, 1945
Running time	84 min
Language	French
IMDb profile

Les dames du Bois de Boulogne is a 1945 film directed by Robert Bresson (his second feature). It is notable in its reduction of dramatic form to its bare essentials, and this film is an early example of Bresson's dramatic experimentation and innovations. A modern adaptation of a section of Diderot's Jacques le fataliste, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne is a tale of revenge and a lover's scorn, his last film to feature a cast entirely composed of professional actors. While Bresson's work is often a reflection of his personal Catholic beliefs and Christian-intellectual mentality, Les Dames is more of a secular example that would soon be replaced by more explicitly-religious content. While the film moves somewhat-similarly to his later features on a dramatic level, as well as its editing rhythms, what most noticeable is the thematic similarities to his later work. The redemptive ending (while more secular than spiritual) is an establishment of Bresson's later, more refined, thematic obsessions with redemption and salvation, signifying his status as an auteur, rather than simply a metteur en scène.