The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy

Overview

"Taking its title from John Keats’s early 19th-century poem, this highly personal melodrama finds Dulac interrogating the archetype of the femme fatale. La belle dame sans merci follows a famous actress who was once seduced and abandoned by a rich man and subsequently resolved to become a “merciless woman,” forever scheming to hurt others (men in particular) in a ruthless yet captivating manner. Dulac challenges the Romantic archetype embodied in Keats’s poem by way of symbolist mise en scène, self-reflexive narration, and her typically associative approach to editing, locating a modern ambiguity within the stereotypical figures of 19th-century art." - Film Society of Lincoln Center

Keywords

Cast

Tania Daleyme

Lola de Sandoval

Yolande Hillé

Irène

Denise Lorys

Comtesse d'Amaury

Jean Toulout

Comte Guy d'Amaury

Jean Tarride

Hubert d'Amaury

Pierre Mareg

Marquis de Saint-Érasme

Lucien Glen

Lucien

Louis Monfils