La Souriante Madame Beudet / The Smiling Madame Beudet is considered Germaine Dulac's impressionist masterpiece. Based on an avant-garde play of the same title by music lover and sports essayist André Obey, this film presents the inner life of a young modern woman hoping to escape an oppressive marriage. Her feminine perspectives and her desire to explore modern life are communicated through gesture, movement, rhythm, and innovative technical effects. Dulac also employs references to Baudelaire, Debussy, and the pre-Raphaelite school that invite us to compare the expressive capacity of this new medium to that of the other arts.
Tami Williams
