Scarlet Lady (La Femme Ecarlate)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Film: B-
Monica
Vitti landed up in disasters like Modesty
Blaise in her honeymoon period after her work with Michelangelo Antonioni,
but Jean Valere’s The Scarlet Lady
(1968, aka The Bitch Wants Blood) is
a better drama with some subdued comedy.
Her rich title character finds out that she has been robbed of her
fortune and the gutting out is something she partly blames on her
lover-turned-enemy Julien (Robert Hossein), who she now plans on killing as she
considers doing herself in.
What
could have turned into a sappy mess is more mature and even clever at times
than expected. This continues as she
uses an off-guard executive (Maurice Ronet) as a toy to show up with her at a
restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, but he lands up becoming obsessed with her and
tries to find her with the knowledge that she intends to do herself in. This all happens with the backdrop of the
late 1960s and psychedelic culture, make more evident by the arrival of a
Beatles knock-off band called The Timothys.
Paul
Gegauff co-wrote the screenplay with Valere and I give them credit for keeping
things consistent and believable. There
was room to even go further in exploring the characters and situation, but this
is a good watch for a change that is not condescending or watered-down. Vitti is beautiful and looks great
throughout, showing her star appeal again.
Scarlet Lady is definitely
worth a look.
The
letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is sadly average, despite some good color and
consistently great shots of Paris.
Video black is a touch off and slightly greenish in a way that is not
from the print. Cinematographer Carol Di
Palma later went on to be Woody Allen’s Director Of Photography on most of his
films from 1986 – 1997, but also worked with Vitti before on Antonioni’s Red Desert in 1964. Too bad it was not an anamorphic transfer. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is offered in the
original French or a Spanish dub that are also average, with the French being more compressed, while the
Spanish is clearer with more background hiss.
Composer Michael Columbier was doing some of the most interesting music
of his career at this point with Colossus:
The Forbin Project (1970) and Un
Flic (1972). This combination also
brings the film above what this would have been otherwise.
The only
extras are a filmography section featuring the three leads and director and a
trailer, but there has to be an interesting back story here and I personally
can’t wait to hear about it. Now that it
has hit DVD, this Vitti work will find a new audience, because it deserves one. IT is not a great film, but it does respect
the intelligence of the viewer, reminding us that cinema all over the world
used to have that ideal as a standard.
- Nicholas Sheffo
