Some might argue that films maudit don’t get much more maudit than Jean Renoir’s very strange 1947 The Woman on the Beach, his last Hollywood film. Joan Bennett (that’s her above) in the title role gives the film a peculiarly Langian flavor, as Jacques Rivette has noted. In any event, a French disc of the film is the subject of this week’s Foreign Region DVD Report, at The Auteurs’, as always.
I saw this film via the kindness of Dan Callahan and thought it was swell. Strange, but swell. And Joan Bennett actually steals a couple of scenes from Robert Ryan, which was unexpected, to say the least.
Toddling off to read.
What an extraordinary image– thanks for posting it!
“I can’t think of any other film in which we are introduced to the dream life of a character prior to seeing his waking life.”
Glenn-just off the top of my head, I’m thinking “Rushmore” and “Pee-Wees’ Big Adventure”. Oh, and that “Wild Strawberries” movie. Also, doesn’t “Sawdust and Tinsel”/“The Naked Night” open w/a dream sequence? And, then there’s “Stardust Memories” and “8 1/2”. …just sayin…