Summary
The author Guy de Maupassant recounts three of his short stories which are about pleasure.
First, pleasure and youth: an old man regains his youth by wearing a mask.
Second, pleasure and purity: the owner of a Parisian brothel visits the country
with her prostitutes and discovers love. Finally, pleasure and death: an
artist falls in love with his model and lives to regret it.
Review
Although unmistakably a classic of French cinema, Le plaisir is marginally less
as satisfying as Ophül’s other attempts at films tableaux (La Ronde and Madame
de…) – probably because the theme linking the three segments of the film is somewhat
insubstantial. ‘Self-delusion’ would appear to be a better and more accurate linking
theme than ‘pleasure’.
Nevertheless, this film, like most of Ophüls’ works, has the distinct feel of a work
of art. Although it seems strange to say it, the star of this film is undoubtedly
the camera.
Somehow, through some remarkable photographic choreography, the camera itself becomes
a central player in the drama. It participates in the boisterous waltz which opens
the film. Later, it haunts the Parisian brothel like a furtive lecher, peering through
the windows for whatever titbit can be glimpsed from within. It lurks in the shadows
of the country house where Madame Tellier and company spend the night, spying any impropriety.
It even tries to commit suicide in the final segment of the film!
Indeed, so strong is the camera’s presence, that all real characters in the film seem
to merge too easily into the background and appear a little two-dimensional and under-developed.
The great strength of the film actual undermines its objective to some extent – although
it does, probably, reflect the central role played by the narrator in these stories.
© James Travers 2001
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