Program 3: The Smiling Madame Beudet and L’invitation au voyage
Germaine Dulac
August 24 - 30, 2018
Two of Dulac’s key works of formal experimentation and social inquiry, both The Smiling Madame Beudet and L’invitation au voyage mark historic attempts to render feminine subjectivity onscreen and criticize her contemporaries’ rigid conceptions of the role of women in society and romance.
The Smiling Madame Beudet / La Souriante Madame Beudet (1923, 38 min, 16mm)
A masterpiece of cinematic impressionism, this film portrays the subjectivity of a young, modern woman seeking to escape an oppressive marriage, her perspective and desires conveyed through gesture, movement, editing rhythm, visual effects, and references to Baudelaire, Debussy, and Pre-Raphaelite painting.
L’invitation au voyage (1927, 33 min, 16mm)
Dulac referred to this film—titled after a poem by Baudelaire, and concerning the emancipation of a married woman who meets a young military officer at a cabaret—as a “melody of images” and a direct response to the literary/theatrical bent of the cinema of her time.
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