La belle dame sans merci

Eunice Martins has engaged in unique fashion with the films and texts of director Germaine Dulac. Since the large-scale retrospective of Dulac’s work at Arsenal in 2002, the films by the avant-garde director have formed a focus of Martins’ comprehensive repertoire. Dulac’s feature LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI (Frankreich 1921) is screened relatively rarely and revolves around celebrated actress Lola de Sandoval (Tania Daleyme). After she is seduced and then abandoned by the rich Count d’Amaury, she decides to become a “woman without mercy”, morphing into a femme fatale as reckless as she is bewitching as she tries to do everything in her power to destroy men above all. Based on an idea by (screen)writer Irène Hillel-Erlanger, who was inspired by a John Keats poem in turn, the film challenges the romantic archetype of the femme fatale and its stereotypical depiction in 19th century art. (Milena Gregor)