The Lady of the Camellias (1981 film)

The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias
	DVD cover
Directed by	Mauro Bolognini
Written by	Alexandre Dumas fils; Jean Aurenche; Vladimir Salomonovitch Pozner
Produced by	Manolo Bolognini; Margaret Ménégoz
Starring	Isabelle Huppert; Gian Maria Volonté
Cinematography	Ennio Guarnieri
Edited by	Nino Baragli
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Release date	11 March 1981;
Running time	115 minutes
Countries	France; Italy
Language	French

The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux camélias, Italian: La storia vera della signora dalle camelie) is a 1981 French-Italian drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Isabelle Huppert.^[1] It tells the actual story of Alphonsine Plessis, who became a famous courtesan in Paris and the inspiration for the novel La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, which has in turn become the source for many plays, operas, ballets, and films.

Plot edit

Alphonsine, growing up motherless in absolute poverty, goes alone to Paris and finds work as a seamstress. In the evening most of the girls she works with work as prostitutes but one is a cloakroom attendant at the opera house and takes her there to help. Seeing high society on display fills her with the desire to join their world.

Illiterate, her only asset being her body, she soon becomes the mistress of a young nobleman. From him she passes to a wealthy old aristocrat and then elopes to England with the Count de Perregaux, who marries her there. Though he makes her a Countess and gives her a taste for opium, he finds matrimony is not for him and leaves her free to live her own life. Never short of admirers, she becomes one of the most famous courtesans in Paris, attracting even Franz Liszt.

Among many struck by her fame and charm is a young writer Alexandre Dumas, fils, son of the illustrious writer Alexandre Dumas, père. For a while he persuades her to stay with him in the country, in the hope it will assuage her tuberculosis and curb her wild spending. But she wants to go out as she has lived and, returning to her Parisian world, dies in 1847 at age 23, leaving behind massive debt. Alexandre turns her story into a novel, which is a great success.

Cast edit

Isabelle Huppert as Alphonsine Plessis
Gian Maria Volonté as Plessis
Bruno Ganz as Count Perregaux
Fabrizio Bentivoglio as Dumas son
Clio Goldsmith as Clemence
Mario Maranzana as Dumas father
Yann Babilée as Agenor
Carla Fracci as Marguerite Gauthier
Cécile Vassort as Henriette
David Jalil as Maxence
Piero Vida
Fabio Traversa as Priest
Remo Remotti
Mattia Sbragia
Clara Colosimo
Gina Rovere
Stefania Pierangelini as Thérèse
Fernando Rey as Count Stackelberg

References edit

^ Eleanor Mannikka (2011). "NY Times: The Lady of the Camellias". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2010.