The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy

Taking its title from John Keatss early 19thcentury poem this highly personal melodrama finds Dulac interrogating the archetype of the femme fatale La belle dame sans merci follows a famous actress who was once seduced and abandoned by a rich man and subsequently resolved to become a merciless woman forever scheming to hurt others men in particular in a ruthless yet captivating manner Dulac challenges the Romantic archetype embodied in Keatss poem by way of symbolist mise en scène selfreflexive narration and her typically associative approach to editing locating a modern ambiguity within the stereotypical figures of 19thcentury art Film Society of Lincoln Center