The Woman on the Beach
61st New York Film Festival
September 29 - October 15, 2023
In Renoir’s beguiling, almost ghostly last film in Hollywood, a PTSD-riddled man (Robert Ryan) meets a woman (Joan Bennett) on a deserted beach, and soon their mutual lust comes to overwhelm each of their nightmarish interactions.
Jean Renoir’s beguiling final Hollywood film was conceived as something that would defy conventional narrative storytelling while also exploring the nature of sexual attraction. Robert Ryan’s PTSD-riddled Scott meets Joan Bennett’s steely-eyed Peggy on a deserted beach one day and they’re immediately drawn to each other, despite their respective romantic relationships, particularly Peggy’s with her blind painter husband (an outstandingly gruff Charles Bickford). The mood slowly darkens as Scott and Peggy’s mutual lust overwhelms each nightmarish interaction. The final film, re-edited and re-shot after an ill-fated test screening, may not be as Renoir initially intended, but a special strangeness—an almost ghost-like quality—remains, as does the defiant energy that he brought to this fascinating curio.
Restored by the Library of Congress and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
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