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Manèges
1950 Drama
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Credits
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Director: Yves Allégret
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Script: Jacques Sigurd
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Photo: Jean Bourgoin
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Cast: Bernard Blier (Robert),
Simone Signoret (Dora),
Jacques Baumer (Louis),
Mona Dol (L'infirmière-chef),
Laure Diana (La cavalière du manège),
Fernand Rauzéna (Les chefs des 'girls'),
Jean Ozenne (Eric),
Jean Hébey (L'acheteur de chevaux),
Gabriel Gobin (Émile),
Jane Marken (La mère de Dora),
Franck Villard (François)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 91 min; B&W
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Aka: The Cheat; The Wanton
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Summary
With his wife, Dora, lying in a hospital bed after a horrific car accident, Robert looks
back with tenderness on their life together. Believing that his wife is going to
die, Robert can think only of the happier times, convinced that theirs was a perfect marriage.
This illusion is shattered when Dora’s embittered mother tells Robert the truth
about his wife. Dora only married Robert for his money and has been bleeding him
dry to the point where he ends up having to sell his business, a riding school.
But there is worse: without him knowing, Dora has taken a secret lover whilst ruthlessly
plotting her next move up the social ladder…
Review
With Manèges, director Yves Allégret paints his most cynical and
intensely pessimistic picture of human nature. A gullible husband is manipulated
by his unscrupulous social climbing wife and then morally devastated by his even more
odious mother-in-law. Not what you might legitimately call light entertainment.
The bleak, film noir style of the piece lends it an atmosphere of despair, conveying
the mood and feelings of the central characters whilst strangely keeping them at some
distance from us. This is not a comfortable film to watch. None of the characters
is portrayed in a sympathetic light and the relentlessly heavy mood becomes almost overwhelming
as the film progresses. Nonetheless, extraordinary performances from the three principal
actors make it compelling viewing and the film leaves a lasting impression on its spectator.
Bernard Blier is perfect in the role of the husband who is incapable of seeing
his wife’s faults until they are pointed out to him by the venomous tongue of his
mother-in-law – a part which allows Blier to give one of his darkest and most introspective
performances. As the seductive but manipulative wife, Simone Signoret could not
have been bettered, and her masterful portrayal of a heartless villainess is evocative
of her later, more celebrated, film roles, most notably as Nicole in Clouzot’s
Les Diaboliques (1955).
(Famously, Signoret was the wife of the director at the time – the last occasion
when the two worked together before their separation. Should we read anything into
Allégret’s decision to cast his wife in this role?) Jane Marken
completes the triangle of unsuppressed mutual contempt with what can only be described
as a superlative performance with her portrayal of the ultimate mother-in-law from Hell.
© James Travers 2004
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