Based on a venerable Legend of the Sea, the story concerns a pliable prostitute named Bella (Romance) who is all things to all men. No matter what sort of woman her client wants, she will become that woman -- at least for the night. When a middle-aged man named Jean insists that Bella is his long-lost sweetheart, she plays along, hoping to escape her sordid lifestyle. The emotional tragedy that follows is meant to explain how Bella became "Maya," the living embodiment of Lost Souls.
Acting
Viviane Romance shape-shifts through personas without ever revealing the 'real' Bella.
Direction
Bernard's fog-drenched Marseille evokes a purgatory of borrowed desires.
Director
Raymond Bernard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released months after Cocteau's Orphée, this shares the post-war French obsession with liminal spaces between life and death.
Viviane Romance reportedly refused to watch dailies, claiming she needed to 'forget' each performance to maintain Bella's fractured subjectivity.
FR
