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Category:    Home > Reviews > Scarlet Lady

Scarlet Lady (La Femme Ecarlate)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: B-

 

 

Monica Vitti landed up in disasters like Modesty Blaise in her honeymoon period after her work with Michelangelo Antonioni, but Jean Valere’s The Scarlet Lady (1968, aka The Bitch Wants Blood) is a better drama with some subdued comedy.  Her rich title character finds out that she has been robbed of her fortune and the gutting out is something she partly blames on her lover-turned-enemy Julien (Robert Hossein), who she now plans on killing as she considers doing herself in.

 

What could have turned into a sappy mess is more mature and even clever at times than expected.  This continues as she uses an off-guard executive (Maurice Ronet) as a toy to show up with her at a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, but he lands up becoming obsessed with her and tries to find her with the knowledge that she intends to do herself in.  This all happens with the backdrop of the late 1960s and psychedelic culture, make more evident by the arrival of a Beatles knock-off band called The Timothys.

 

Paul Gegauff co-wrote the screenplay with Valere and I give them credit for keeping things consistent and believable.  There was room to even go further in exploring the characters and situation, but this is a good watch for a change that is not condescending or watered-down.  Vitti is beautiful and looks great throughout, showing her star appeal again.  Scarlet Lady is definitely worth a look.

 

The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is sadly average, despite some good color and consistently great shots of Paris.  Video black is a touch off and slightly greenish in a way that is not from the print.  Cinematographer Carol Di Palma later went on to be Woody Allen’s Director Of Photography on most of his films from 1986 – 1997, but also worked with Vitti before on Antonioni’s Red Desert in 1964.  Too bad it was not an anamorphic transfer.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is offered in the original French or a Spanish dub that are also average, with the French being more compressed, while the Spanish is clearer with more background hiss.  Composer Michael Columbier was doing some of the most interesting music of his career at this point with Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) and Un Flic (1972).  This combination also brings the film above what this would have been otherwise.

 

The only extras are a filmography section featuring the three leads and director and a trailer, but there has to be an interesting back story here and I personally can’t wait to hear about it.  Now that it has hit DVD, this Vitti work will find a new audience, because it deserves one.  IT is not a great film, but it does respect the intelligence of the viewer, reminding us that cinema all over the world used to have that ideal as a standard.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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