Special Collections

Included in the Reading Room display are a diverse collection of materials taken from our Special Collections, which holds a unique array of television and film ephemera. A collection of press books from French films will be displayed in the Reading Room throughout the month of June, including the following:

• Caroline Chérie (1950)
• A Woman of Evil [La Reine Margot] (1954)
• Camille Claudel (1988)
• Le Colonel Chabert (1994)
• L'Anglaise et le Duc (2001)

Caroline Chérie (1950)

In Caroline Chérie (1950) and its sequel Un Caprice de Caroline Chérie (1953), Martine Carol stars as the eponymous heroine who uses all her wits and her heaving bosom to elude the guillotine in revolutionary France. Carol went on to be typecast as an "elegant blonde seductress", taking the leading role in Lola Montès (1955), also based on a Cecile St. Laurent novel.

A Woman of Evil [La Reine Margot] (1954)

Based on Alexandre Dumas' novel, this early retelling of La Reine Margot stars one of France's most enduringly successful actresses, Jeanne Moreau as Marguerite de Valois, or "Margot" to her brothers. Moreau's career subsequently shifted away from costume drama as she became increasingly associated with the realist style of the Nouvelle Vague.

Camille Claudel (1988)

The cover of the pressbook for Camille Claudel (1988), starring Isabel Adjani as the heroine of this tragic biopic. The melodramatic tendencies of the film are conveyed in the publicity material's images of crashing waves and intense gazes between Claudel and Rodin, for whom she was model, muse, pupil and ultimately spurned lover. Despite achieving success as a sculptor in her own right, Claudel ends her days in an asylum, apparently destroyed by her relationship with Rodin.

Le Colonel Chabert (1994)

Adapted from Balzac's novel, Le Colonel Chabert (1994) stars the ubiquitous Gerard Depardieu alongside Fanny Ardant, who went on to appear in Patrice Leconte's lavish costume drama Ridicule (1996).

L'Anglaise et le Duc (2001)

The French Revolution has naturally inspired many a quality costume drama, one of the most recent examples being the prolific Eric Rohmer's L'Anglaise et le Duc (2001). The film is a somewhat radical example, however, in its combination of modern digital video with a mise-en-scène that attempts to faithfully reproduce an "authentic Paris", using backdrops painted in the aesthetic style of the period.