Mar 1, 2019
L'amour d'une femme (The Love Of A Woman, 1953)
"Do you remember that first night, in the jeep? We spoke about our jobs and we understood one another perfectly. You even told me that I was lucky to be a doctor. What's changed?"
"I'm thinking of us now."
"Think of me, too."
"That's what I'm doing. Didn't you hear what I just said? The two of us."
"Yes, I heard. But the two of us means you."
#l'amour d'une femme#the love of a woman#french cinema#1953#films i done watched#melodrama#jean grémillon#micheline presle#massimo girotti#gaby morlay#paolo stoppa#marc cassot#marius david#yvette etiévant#roland lesaffre#robert naly#madeleine geoffroy#made siamé#henri marchand#robert mercier#my first exposure to the films of jean grémillon is the directors last work. it's a bittersweet sad beautiful film about love#not just the love between presle and girotti but also the love presle has for her work and the love of a townspeople for one another#its an intimate portrait of a small moment in a normal place with normal people and their wants and needs and fears. and its beautiful#but so wistful and so sad. presle is fantastic as the small town doctor who faces the old fashioned prejudices of a rural community#that don't expect women to be anything but teachers or mothers. she's wonderful alternating between a sort of frail vulnerability#and an inner steel and unshakeable faith in her own ability. the love story is sad and sweet but grémillon mixes in some thoughtful#meditations on the nature of faith and the place of religion in a (not overly) modern society. gaby morlay is heartbreaking as her teacher#friend and confidante. all the cast are good but presle owns this. the final scenes are hardly anything new or unexpected but i still found#myself wailing at the screen wanting something anything to go differently. sigh.
