User Reviews

Maria Cross, a woman of a somewhat sordid past, is the central figure around whom this story revolves. She has just lost her six year old son, mourning him and not accepting the sad fact he is gone. A local doctor, Paul Courreges, is devastated in not having been able to cure the boy, something of a failure in his own mind. Blaming himself, he still takes care of Maria, with whom he begins a correspondence which becomes the center of attention for his own family. His teen aged son, Raymond, cannot help being attracted by the suffering Maria. He does everything too be near her. Unfortunately, Paul discovers to his amazement of the way his son feels about the woman he became in love with, himself.

That is basically the premise of Francois Mauriac's novel. Mr. Mauriac was one of France's most admired writers. It does not surprise why the story was adapted for television a second time. Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, whose work is primarily in television adapted in collaboration with Anne-Marie Catois and Natalie Carter. The story is seen through the eyes of Raymond. The young man develops an attraction for this tragic woman, not realizing what his father's feelings are for her. Of course, decency prevails and both, father and son, are saved from a scandal as Maria Cross departs for Paris.

One can imagine this was a vehicle for its star, Emmanuelle Beart, who plays the enigmatic Maria with a touch of mystery. One never gets to know what really was in her mind, or what she felt for the young admirer. Didier Bezace, an actor who does a lot of television, is the tormented doctor who finds himself in love with the young mother. Mathieu Spinosi makes a good Raymond.

The setting is Bordeaux and its verdant woods, hardly a desert; the sentimental landscape is alive with longing as well. Both Doctor Courreges and his son Raymond are entranced with Maria Cross, a widow with a soiled reputation and now a dead son. She is desperately unhappy and their yearning for her provides a comfort she cannot reciprocate given the societal constraints. (The story must have straddled WWI, because there is subplot about a war-widow.) Instead she is saddled with a rich suitor she does not love ... Twelve years later, as its framing device, the film presents a reunion of sort.

I have not seen an Emmanuelle Beart film in years, and can't say I have enjoyed one of hers for much longer (the last great film must be Andre Techine's _Witnesses_). The actress has withdrawn into an all-purpose hostility. In _The Desert of Love_, however, she is sensational, by turn prim, seductive, world-weary, and strangely alive. It is heart-breaking to see her cover-up her unhappiness with her imperious manner at the end ...

The TV film by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe (who seems to specialize in prestige TV production) is adapted from Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac's novel. I have never read anything by Mauriac, but am quite impress by this women-centric story, and by Claude Miller's _Therese_, also adapted from his work. The lighting and production design here is tony bourgeois, but the spare score is particularly beautiful.

Surely many teenagers become entranced with older women, but you seldom see this depicted in American movies. (Off the top of my head, I can only think of _Sophie's Choice_.) European films are full of them. A favorite is _The Miracle_ by Neil Jordan, in which both father and son are obsessed with the same woman, much like in this film and in _First Love_ (Maximilian Schell). You wonder why. In any case, _The Desert of Love_ is a great return to form by Emmanuelle Beart. To answer pallavibhunjun's question from 2018, I saw it on amazon's "France" channel, but it will be gone in a few days!