A talented photographer who lands a lucrative job in Paris with a scandal-mongering tabloid and becomes romantically involved with an eccentric children's book publisher while resisting the sexual advances of another photographer.
Direction
Żuławski's trademark hysteria—bodies contorted by desire.
Acting
Marceau commits completely to physical unraveling.
Cinematography
Paris as fevered, claustrophobic dreamscape.
Director
Andrzej Żuławski
Sophie Marceau
Clélia
Guillaume Canet
Némo
Pascal Greggory
Clève
Michel Subor
Rupert MacRoi
Magali Noël
La mère de clélia
Marina Hands
Julia
Marc François
Saint-André
Édith Scob
Diane
Manuel Le Lièvre
Jean
Aurélien Recoing
Bernard
Jean-Charles Dumay
Antoine
Guy Tréjan
Julien Clève
Edéa Darcque
Ina
Julie Brochen
Genièvre
Armande Altaï
Mrs. MacRoi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Marcel Proust's 'La Prisonnière'—yes, THAT Proust—though Żuławski strips away the novel's aristocratic delicacy for something far more carnal and immediate.
The infamous 'screaming scene' where Marceau and Canet essentially dissolve into each other was reportedly shot in a single exhausting take that left crew members shaken.
FR
