Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne

Bresson’s second feature is “a landmark in cinema history … Its influence on subsequent French cinema is far from exhausted” (David Thomson). Made in collaboration with Jean Cocteau, who wrote the dialogue, and deriving much of its dramatic tension from the counterpoint between Cocteau’s dense, ornate words and Bresson’s natural austerity, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne features María Casares (Cocteau’s Princess of Death in Orphée) in her first starring role. She gives a piercing performance as a jilted woman who takes revenge on her ex-lover by luring him into marriage with a sex worker.

The story is freely adapted from a section of Diderot’s 18th-century classic Jacques the Fatalist and given a lush, contemporary, Cocteau-like setting filled with flowers, furs, jewels, and shiny automobiles. Jacques Rivette and Antonioni, among others, cited the film as a major influence. Although he received stellar performances here, Bresson would never again work with professional actors.