La Prisonniere
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| Starring | Laurent Terzieff Elisabeth Wiener Bernard Fresson Dany Carrel | |
| Directed by | Henri-Georges Clouzot | |
| Editing by | Noëlle Balenci | |
| Music by | Gilbert Amy Anton Webern Gustav Mahler Iannis Xenakis | |
| Released | Nov 20, 1968 | |
| Runtime | 101 minutes | |
| Country | France | |
| language | French | |
La Prisonnière (also known as Woman in Chains) is a French film written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot that was released in 1968. It is about an attractive young woman living with an avant-garde artist who falls disastrously for the voyeuristic owner of the gallery which shows her husband's work. Clouzot's only film completed in color was the last of his career.
Plot
Stanislas, a wealthy unmarried owner of an art gallery in Paris, his friend, and patron to Gilbert, a creator of progressive artworks, who lives in a little suburban flat with José, a television editor. On the opening night of an exhibition, Gilbert goes off with an attractive young woman who is an influential critic.
Left alone, José goes back with Stanislas to his luxurious flat, where he shows her a photograph he had taken of a naked woman in bondage. Though she is shocked and leaves, the allure of Stanislas and of his pornographic image works in her mind until one day she asks him if she can sit in on a photo session. Finding herself increasingly excited by the rising erotic tension of the shoot and by the sexiness of the pretty young model, José angers Stanislas by leaving in confusion. The two make it up, however, and José starts posing for him, but she wants more than this artificial connection.
Gilbert, unhappy with her unexplained absences, goes on a business trip to Germany, and José and Stanislas travel together to an inn in Brittany. After a night together, Stanislas has second thoughts and abandons her there. Deeply hurt at this behavior, José tells all to Gilbert on his return. He rushes off to Stanislas' flat, intending to kill him, but the two reach a sort of reconciliation. Following in her own car, José shoots a level crossing and is hit by a train. Coming out of her coma in hospital, she thinks that Gilbert, waiting by the bedside, is Stanislas come to reclaim her.
Cast
- Bernard Fresson : Gilbert, avant-garde artist
- Élisabeth Wiener : José, Gilbert's partner
- Dany Carrel : Maguy, Stanislas' model
- Michel Piccoli : guest at the gallery
- Charles Vanel : guest at the gallery
- Joanna Shimkus : guest at the gallery
- Jackie Sardou : The cashier
Portrayal of the sexes, 30 January 2006
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La Prisonniere tells the story of Stan, a man fascinated by the concept of submission and his experimentation with his own capacity to dominate. He manifests this fascination through photographing women as he instructs them to undress. When the rather conservative Jose decides she would like to pose for him she finds herself caught in a tormenting struggle between the shame and the pleasure she experiences through the act of submission. Here the film analyses the relationship between voyeur and 'viewed', which at first is hindered by her fear and instinctive prudence but later softens into mutual respect and affection. From the outset, women are portrayed as sexual objects as Stan fingers his naked dolls in the opening credits in the same way as he poses his models, as if inanimate. However, the images of naked women seen throughout, as well as Stan's treatment of his models, are essentially respectful and adoring rather than degrading. The extended motif of repetition, presented in the pattern and movement of the artwork, reflections in mirrors, and the process of reproduction suggested by the photos and the printing press, emulate the intensity and invasiveness of Stans voyeurism. At the same time the optical illusions, playing on the gallery scenes, coupled with their emotive sound effects seem to hint at Jose's mental and emotional confusion towards her role as the servile model. The character of Stan is overtly sexual in his masculinity, authority and seemingly in his mere presence as he appears to cause Maguy to climax during her photoshoot. While he is tender and genuine in his love for Jose, he remains dominant and in control by not letting on to her. I found this film beautiful to watch despite its disturbing subject matter and I believe it is an emotive representation of how women can be tortured as well as gratified through both their sexual oppression and freedom.
Psychedelic Head Games - Magnifique!, 28 August 2003
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Opening with the eeriest and perverse credit sequence you are ever likely to see, HG Clouzot's final film veers from claustrophobic mind games to swooning romance to 60s Pop Art psychedelia - without ever once losing the iron grip that was its director's trademark. It's Clouzot, and not the prolific but overrated Claude Chabrol, who deserves to be called 'the French Hitchcock.' Yet Clouzot, uninhibited by the demands of Hollywood 'box office,' was able to plumb depths of misanthropy and depravity that Hitch could scarcely dream of.
In La Prisonniere, he achieves the complete emotional and moral annihilation of all three protagonists. A young wife (Elisabeth Wiener) grows bored with her philandering artist husband (Bernard Fresson) and falls under the spell of a voyeuristic gallery owner (Laurent Terzieff) - who dabbles in kinky S&M photos on the side. If that sounds like a recipe for disaster...well, it is - but never quite in the ways we predict. The flamboyantly deranged Terzieff may, in fact, be the sanest character in this twisted triangle. So how crazy are the heroine and her hubby...?
Suffice it to say that, having produced an erotic and psychological thriller that outclasses any of Chabrol's more famous efforts of the late 60s, Clouzot then enters the tormented mind of his heroine - in a psychedelic 'head trip' to rival Kubrick's finale to 2001. A pity that Elisabeth Wiener (a forgotten 60s beauty in the style of Charlotte Rampling or Marianne Faithfull) never quite suggests the depths of anguish her role demands. Still, the magnificent Terzieff supplies angst enough for the whole cast. And he's not even the mad one...
External Links
Review La Prisonniere at the Internet Movie Database
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