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Madeleine (1949)

Director: David Lean

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From Time Out Film Guide

One of three films Lean made virtually as star vehicles for his wife Ann Todd. Here she manages to extend the range of her semi-hysterical screen personality into a flimsily forceful character who pits her amoral deviousness against the rigid hypocrisy of Victorian Glasgow. Lean strongly emphasises her vulnerability: her French lover (Desny) is a preening bully, her father (Banks) a fire-eating patriarch, and her passage to the courtroom (accused of poisoning the lover) is marked by the furious rantings of a male mob. Where the film is remarkable, though, is in never allowing her to become simply a victim. She dares to expose and enjoy her sensuality, and cunningly exploits the prim reticence expected of a Victorian miss to avoid submission to marriage, deflecting the hostile gaze of outraged society with a proudly enigmatic vanity.

Author: RMy 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: David Lean

Producer: Stanley Haynes

Cast: Ann Todd, Leslie Banks, Elizabeth Sellars, Norman Wooland, Ivan Desny, Ivor Barnard, Andre Morell, Edward Chapman full cast

Duration: 114 mins


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