Yes, Julien Duvivier directed brilliantly Vivian Leigh and Ralph Richardson playing wife and husband hating each other in spite of a lovely son. Vivian has a really charming face and Ralph is so cold as an important bourgeois, they fit together as a sad couple. But I don't understand how can she be in love with Kieron Moore, handsome but woodenly inexpressive. There's also Sally Ann Howes as the touching fragile Kitty. But sadly, there's one character totally missing in the movie, it's the son of Vivian and Ralph, we see him only in one short scene, so I didn't understand why the script didn't show Vivian's love to her son, she wants to see him, but she doesn't even speak about her love for him.
The art direction and costumes are magnificent, but would have been much stronger in color (like "Blanche Fury" directed by another French director, Marc Allégret at the same time in England).
But there are enough brilliant scenes to forget those holes in production. I wanted to finish with master cinematographer Henry Alekan, who helped a lot in some most impressive visual scenes.
The art direction and costumes are magnificent, but would have been much stronger in color (like "Blanche Fury" directed by another French director, Marc Allégret at the same time in England).
But there are enough brilliant scenes to forget those holes in production. I wanted to finish with master cinematographer Henry Alekan, who helped a lot in some most impressive visual scenes.