The Smiling Madame Beudet

Germaine Dulac, 1923, from the play by Denys Amiel and André Obey. In a dull provincial house Madame Beudet (Germaine Dermoz) smiles because that is required; her husband thinks an empty revolver is a funny threat. She imagines him gone, then almost makes it true when he loads the gun and she does not know. About half an hour. Dulac uses superimposition for the life the wife is not allowed. CNC and the Cinémathèque treat it as a key surviving film by a woman director of the 1920s.