Jeanne, played by Jeanne Moreau, is a married mother and housewife in the provinces. Her husband Henri is handsome, successful, and cultured, but also an arrogant stuffed shirt who seems indifferent to her unhappiness. She has little to do and is lonely at home. To divert herself, she spends time with her shallow, trend-following friend Maggie in Paris. She begins an affair with suave high society polo player, Raoul, but is still unfulfilled.
Henri invites Raoul and Maggie over and in the course of the night, makes the two of them seem ridiculous and sows discord between them and Jeanne. Raoul in particular is revealed as a lightweight whose dedication to starting a new life with Jeanne is destroyed by Henri's bourgeois solidity and ability to make their sham marriage seem real. Meanwhile, Jeanne has gotten a ride home after her car broke down by a young handsome archaeologist, Bernard. He is abrasive and immature, but also sincere and romantic, and the two fall in love. She is able to find happiness again in loving Bernard after years of boredom, but the future of the lovers is uncertain.
Jeanne Moreau is brilliant at depicting a woman who is bored and unfulfilled, looking beautiful but not so secretly empty both in her fancy bourgeois house and in the childish diversions of Parisian fashionable circle. Alain Cuny as Henri is imposing and self-satisfied as her husband who doesn't take Jeanne seriously, feeling that he has the money and the power and is ultimately in control. Jose Luis de Villalonga as Raoul is convincing as a man who appears at first sophisticated and dapper but is actually weak and indecisive. Judith Magre as Maggy is somewhat overly comical as the shallow society friend. Jean-Marc Bory as the young lover is very handsome and with his physical presence and warm gaze and smile convey the ideas of sincerity, beauty, and natural masculinity that can spark Jeanne's happiness, although I felt that there was something lacking in his performance and chemistry with Jeanne to be totally convincing.
There is something still impressive and challenging in the movie's depiction of Jeanne abandoning everything solid in her bourgeois life and even leaving the home where her child is growing up in a search for authenticity, love, and happiness. In particular, the film feels still shocking in its refusal to condemn Jeanne with the expected moralizing ending.
The relationship between the two lovers, however, seems somewhat unmotivated and abrupt. Even though we know that Jeanne is very unhappy, and the stranger "represents" the sincerity missing from her life, nevertheless the attraction doesn't feel convincing, and it's even less clear why exactly Bernard chooses her. Bernard seems too good to be true, and one keeps expecting him to reveal himself as flaky and regretting his whim.
Then, too, the attack on bourgeois society, in the person of Henri, could be sharper. If one is young and rebellious and inclined to dislike people like Henri, the critique might seem convincing. Otherwise one might find him relatively sympathetic - true, he is not as warm and idealistic as Bernard, but arguably his practicality, stability, and respectability have as much of a role to play in society.
This is a good film that stands the test of time as interesting and worthy. Even if the sex scene in it is by no measure shocking nowadays, it still is challenging in its depiction of a passion that shocks convention. It's not at the level of later films by Malle like The Fire Within or Lacombe Lucien that feel more complex and realistic, but the focus on the feminine perspective gives it a special interest.
Henri invites Raoul and Maggie over and in the course of the night, makes the two of them seem ridiculous and sows discord between them and Jeanne. Raoul in particular is revealed as a lightweight whose dedication to starting a new life with Jeanne is destroyed by Henri's bourgeois solidity and ability to make their sham marriage seem real. Meanwhile, Jeanne has gotten a ride home after her car broke down by a young handsome archaeologist, Bernard. He is abrasive and immature, but also sincere and romantic, and the two fall in love. She is able to find happiness again in loving Bernard after years of boredom, but the future of the lovers is uncertain.
Jeanne Moreau is brilliant at depicting a woman who is bored and unfulfilled, looking beautiful but not so secretly empty both in her fancy bourgeois house and in the childish diversions of Parisian fashionable circle. Alain Cuny as Henri is imposing and self-satisfied as her husband who doesn't take Jeanne seriously, feeling that he has the money and the power and is ultimately in control. Jose Luis de Villalonga as Raoul is convincing as a man who appears at first sophisticated and dapper but is actually weak and indecisive. Judith Magre as Maggy is somewhat overly comical as the shallow society friend. Jean-Marc Bory as the young lover is very handsome and with his physical presence and warm gaze and smile convey the ideas of sincerity, beauty, and natural masculinity that can spark Jeanne's happiness, although I felt that there was something lacking in his performance and chemistry with Jeanne to be totally convincing.
There is something still impressive and challenging in the movie's depiction of Jeanne abandoning everything solid in her bourgeois life and even leaving the home where her child is growing up in a search for authenticity, love, and happiness. In particular, the film feels still shocking in its refusal to condemn Jeanne with the expected moralizing ending.
The relationship between the two lovers, however, seems somewhat unmotivated and abrupt. Even though we know that Jeanne is very unhappy, and the stranger "represents" the sincerity missing from her life, nevertheless the attraction doesn't feel convincing, and it's even less clear why exactly Bernard chooses her. Bernard seems too good to be true, and one keeps expecting him to reveal himself as flaky and regretting his whim.
Then, too, the attack on bourgeois society, in the person of Henri, could be sharper. If one is young and rebellious and inclined to dislike people like Henri, the critique might seem convincing. Otherwise one might find him relatively sympathetic - true, he is not as warm and idealistic as Bernard, but arguably his practicality, stability, and respectability have as much of a role to play in society.
This is a good film that stands the test of time as interesting and worthy. Even if the sex scene in it is by no measure shocking nowadays, it still is challenging in its depiction of a passion that shocks convention. It's not at the level of later films by Malle like The Fire Within or Lacombe Lucien that feel more complex and realistic, but the focus on the feminine perspective gives it a special interest.