La Femme du bout du monde
Jean Epstein, FR 1937Screenplay: Jean Epstein & Alain Serdac based on the novel by Alain Serdac; Cinematography: Enzo Riccioni, Paul Cotteret; Editing: Henriette Caire; Music: Jean Wiener; Cast: Charles Vanel, Germaine Rouer, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Robert Le Vigan, Paul Azaïs, Alexandre Rignault, Philippe Richard, Georges Douking. DCP (from 35mm), bw, 87 min. French with English subtitles
La Femme du bout du monde, Jean Epstein's final feature, transports viewers to a remote island at the edge of imagination and represents a late-stage culmination of the director's standard preoccupations. A cargo ship called the Saint-Joachim is in obsessive pursuit of elusive mineral deposits and lands on a desolate island where the explorers discover a mysterious, solitary woman, her deranged husband and their young child at an isolated inn. The outsiders succumb to her enigmatic, magnetic presence; unspoken tensions mount as passion, rivalry and desperation threaten to destroy this confined world. The arrival of a second cargo ship, the Pretoria from England, only complicates matters, and the two crews find themselves at war with each other. Reminiscent of his masterpiece Finis terrae (1928), La Femme du bout du monde, shot on location on the island of Ushant off Brittany, marries the stark, rugged beauty of Atlantic exteriors with poetic introspection – the untamed, wild sea becomes both a backdrop and a metaphor for wild, untamed passions that can only lead to tragedy. (J.-M.G.)
Screening dates:
So 26.10.2025 13:30
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