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La Belle Captive (1982)
Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
On his way to deliver an important letter to the Comte de Corinthe for his glamorous, motorcycling boss Sara (Claire), Walter (Mesguich) comes across an injured woman, Marie-Ange (Lazure), lying in the road. In search of help, he takes her to an isolated villa where a mysterious convocation of sinister-looking gentlemen is in progress. A man calling himself a doctor (Chaumette) locks them in a bedroom where they make love. In the morning, Marie-Ange is gone and the villa deserted. A painting over the bed - Magritte's La Belle Captive - stirs echoes in Walter's mind. He has been experiencing visions of a theatre curtain framing part of a windswept beach, where the waves roll in remorselessly. The narrative, littered with false starts and dead ends, dreams within dreams, is pure Robbe-Grillet, recalling some of his startling early novels (Dans le Labyrinthe, La Maison de rendez-vous). Robbe-Grillet habitué Wade helps the viewer make sense of it all and assists his director in augmenting the tension as the sense of nightmarish claustrophobia builds towards the climax.Author: NRo
Cast & crew
Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Producer: Anatole Dauman
Cast: Daniel Mesguich, Cyrielle Claire, Daniel Emilfork, François Chaumette, Gabrielle Lazure, Arielle Dombasle full cast
Duration: 85 mins
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