7 /10 1 Votes
3.5/5 AlloCine Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot Edited by Noëlle Balenci Director Henri-Georges Clouzot | 7/10 IMDb 6.8/10 SensCritique Screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot Initial release 20 November 1968 (France) Cinematography Andréas Winding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Laurent Terzieff
Elisabeth Wiener
Bernard Fresson
Dany Carrel Music by Gilbert Amy
Anton Webern
Gustav Mahler
Iannis Xenakis Release date 20 November 1968 (1968-11-20) Screenplay Henri-Georges Clouzot, Marcel Moussy, Monique Lange Music director Gilbert Amy, Gustav Mahler, Iannis Xenakis, Anton Webern Cast Élisabeth Wiener, Laurent Terzieff, Dany Carrel, Bernard Fresson, Claude Piéplu Similar Le Révélateur, Des gens sans importance, Red Kiss, The Last Woman, Douce violence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
La prisonnière, sometimes 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 colour, it was the last of his career.
Contents
Plot
Stanislas, wealthy unmarried owner of an art gallery in Paris, is friend and patron to Gilbert, a creator of progressive artworks, who lives in a little suburban flat with Josée, a television editor. At the opening night of an exhibition, Gilbert goes off with an attractive young woman who is an influential critic. Left alone, Josée 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, Josée angers Stanislas by leaving in confusion. The two make it up however and Josée starts posing for him, but she wants more than this artificial relationship. Unhappy at her unexplained absences, Gilbert goes on a business trip to Germany and Josée lures Stanislas into taking her to a hotel in Brittany. After a night together, he has second thoughts and abandons her there. Deeply hurt at this behaviour, Josée 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, Josée 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
Themes
The film is close in theme to some other pictures of the time. Both Antonioni's Blow Up and Powell's Peeping Tom explored the dark links between men who make erotic images of women, films about such men and their models, and the viewers of such films, while Buñuel's Belle de jour acted out the sadomasochistic fantasies of a beautiful middle-class woman. Contemporary also are its visual elements of pop and psychedelic art, including a striking dream sequence which prefigures Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Reception
Review sites surveyed on 17 February 2016 give ratings of 67% at SensCritique, 70% at Rotten Tomatoes, 71% at IMDb and 72% at Allociné.
