Belle - André Delvaux

uno strano film, con un Jean Luc Bideau (Mathieu) bravo come sempre.
è uno scrittore, solita vita, amici (Roger Coggio, che interpreta Victor) fino a che, nella campagna trova una donna (che lo aspetta?), che non parla la sua lingua e lui la chiama Belle.
è disposto a tutto per lei, ma succedono delle cose tragiche.
intanto la figlia sta con un giovane ribelle (sembra) e lo sposerà.
poi tutto tornerà come prima, se possibile, per Mathieu.

un film che merita, sicuro.

…In a cultural context, Delvaux had created a work entirely congruent with the concerns of two of Belgium’s greatest dramatists, Maeterlinck and Ghelderode: the juxtaposition of the medieval with the modern, the dressing up of primeval concerns in modern dress – the pursuit of a mysterious woman by a schlemiel in a Volvo.

All this said, with allowances made for a faulty memory, I must admit that little in the way of motivation was offered by Delvaux for Mathieu’s surreptitious double life. Jeanne was patently lovely and in love with her husband. His daughter may have been a trifle flaky, but the man she married, while unkempt, was far from what one might consider a bad choice. And the life of an archivist in provincial Belgium must have had its own rewards, what with local records going back to feudal times.

Then why did Mathieu succumb so quickly to the dubious yet pulchritudinous attractions of this unwashed foreign Beauty? And why did it become such an overpowering escape for him? The surrealist Amour fou explanation of the irrational male attraction to a beautiful yet speechless woman is insufficient. Mathieu was already married to a beautiful and articulate woman who obviously loved him. There is always the entomological explanation – the male who mates with the female within her lair only to be eaten by her. And yet men and women are somewhat more sophisticated in their matings.

And yet. And yet. Such are the doubts that a jealous memory sometimes elicits. The characters in a film, unlike those on stage, always seem to have lives that came before and that continue after the film has ended. We cannot leave poor Mathieu, as Andre Delvaux – or Belle – did, standing on the brink of a frozen bog, anticipating what the Spring might reveal of his faithlessness.

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