Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
Filmed in 1944 during the German occupation of Paris, there is no mention of World War II, no sign of any German presence, not a single uniform in sight, even at the wedding, and none of the usual well-known wartime regulations and/or shortages. Jean, with apparent ample income, but no meaningful source of obtaining it, seems also to have not only escaped military service, but also drives around Paris, otherwise devoid of civilian traffic and military or police control, in a pre-war American-made 1936 Pontiac convertible that would have normally have been confiscated for wartime use decades earlier, and with an apparent ample supply of otherwise unobtainable gasoline.,In the meeting between Hélène and Jean in which they tell each other that there is no more love between the two, the clock on the mantelpiece jumps from ten to twelve to ten past twelve within seconds.,Jacques: There's no such thing as love, only proofs of love.,The German dubbed version is about two minutes shorter, due to several cuts in the final scenes. The channel Arte screened the complete movie with the missing scenes subtitled.,Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: La monnaie de l'absolu (1999),Till 1950,Robert Bresson used professional actors.This explains why those previous movies are much more accessible -and thus generally overlooked by the "true" RB connoisseurs ,this naive audience who is still thinking that French cinema did begin with him;this mindless belief was fueled by the director himself whose contempt for his colleagues was notorious ...

And like it or not,It's one of his colleagues,Marcel Carné ,who provided Bresson with his star Maria Casarès,who was featured in the absolute chef-d'oeuvre of our French cinema "Les Enfants Du Paradis" .She played the part of Natalie and was not overshadowed by Arletty,which was quite a feat!

In "les Dames...",Casares was extraordinary: in her last scenes ,when she spits her hate ,her contempt and when she savors her vengeance as she says :"You've married a hooker! I had you marry a hooker!" ,she mesmerizes her audience.After her lover had left her,she really became a spider spinning her web in which the two women and her ex would be caught up.

Jean Cocteau wrote the dialog.Maria Casarès would become one of his favorite actresses:"Orphée" and "Le Testament d'Orphée".,