Classic French Noir by Walker-Morrison Deborah;

Author:Walker-Morrison, Deborah;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: French film nor, post-war France, femme fatale
ISBN: 9781786735188
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

Woman as spectacle and exchange object

In Retour de Manivelle the key to the femme’s ruthlessness is provided by an iconic element of decor – a life-size moulded bronze torso, which has pride of place in the husband’s drawing room, mythically titled ‘Hélène, 1954’. Not present in the source novel (whose fatale is a more one-dimensional spider woman), though it could certainly be read as a visual translation of Hadley Chase’s titular ‘Price Tag’, the bronze is in evidence in six scenes interspersed throughout the film. Appearing on screen for over four minutes in total (including three six-second full shots), it is an unambiguous iconic signifier of Hélène’s power but also (and more importantly) her simultaneous subjection/objectification. Even before the hero meets her in the flesh, he is smitten by Hélène’s reified form, the quintessence of classical beauty, which her husband has commissioned and paid for; but which he is paradoxically unable to possess. (Her lack of love for him has driven him to drink, financial ruin and suicide.)

De la Patellière places the bust ominously in the background when Hélène instructs Robert to seduce the maid (Figure 7.3). A later scene, opening on a dissolve to a five-second close-up of the bronze, reveals that the police inspector’s investigation has uncovered some unsavoury facts. Hélène once attempted suicide, allegedly due to her perverse husband’s habit of ‘sharing’ his ‘collector’s item’ with wealthy business associates. In scene after scene we are reminded – visually (via the bronze) as well as via dialogues – of her status as pure object of desire and exchange. It is her rebellion against a lifetime of such objectification that has rendered her emotionally (and sexually?) frigid and prompts her ruthless quest for emotional and economic independence: ‘My whole life I’ve been bought and sold like a thing. This money is mine. I’ve earnt it. Paid for it with year after year of disgust.’

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