#Jacqueline Sassard

[sundaynightfilms]

Les biches, 1968

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Les Biches (1968)

[cinematicjourney]

Accident (1967) | dir. Joseph Losey

[mudwerks]

(via Jacqueline Sassard 1940 – 2021 – 24 Femmes Per Second)

[sigurism]

pascale petit | alain delon | mylène demongeot | jacqueline sassard faibles femmes (three murderesses) dir: michel boisrond

[andersalsdieandern]

[withnailrules]

Jacqueline Sassard

[iosonoleossa]

Guendalina, Alberto Lattuada (1957)

[istitutofemminile]

Arrivano i titani 1962

[kittykripton-ted]

[sundaynightfilms]

Les biches, 1968

[boxcarwild]

Jacqueline Sassard (13 March 1940 – 17 July 2021) was a French actress who appeared in Italian films such as Guendalina (1957) directed by Alberto Lattuada, Luigi Zampa's Il Magistrato (1959) and Valerio Zurlini's Violent Summer (1959). Her best remembered role was in Joseph Losey's Accident (1967), with a script by Harold Pinter, where she played an Austrian princess.

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Les Biches (1968)

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Accident

Repression triggers venality in Joseph Losey’s exquisitely wicked ACCIDENT (1967, TCM, BFI Player), adapted from Nicholas Mosley’s novel by Harold Pinter. As an Oxford don incapable of acting directly on his attraction to a beautiful Austrian student (Jacqueline Sassard) and, possibly, a handsome, athletic aristocrat (Michael York), Dirk Bogarde barely moves yet seems to be rotting from the inside. During a walk with Sassard, they stop with their hands on a fence as they enjoy the view, and you can just catch his fingers quivering as he longs to touch her hand.

The bones of the plot could easily have made for soap opera (and Sam Spiegel unsuccessfully tried to get Losey to direct an all-star version of the film that would be more “commercial”). As Bogarde longs futilely for Sassard, Baker has an affair with her he finds life changing. What it means to her is never clearly stated (is anything in Pinter ever clearly stated?), but when she becomes engaged to York, she asks Bogarde to break the news to his colleague for her. Losey is a master of capturing the dynamics of a relationship visually — the placement of Bogarde’s and Baker’s bodies after the former discovers the affair or the interplay between Bogarde and wife Vivien Merchant when he tells her what’s going on. And Pinter exercises a subtle wit in capturing the intellectual arrogance of his characters and their jockeying for position, both sexually and professionally.

There’s also a subtle treatment of gender, not just in the way York and Bogarde sometimes seem to be flirting. In the tutoring sessions, Bogarde discusses life freely with York and even shares a drink with him but talks at Sassard and tells her what to read. During the Sunday afternoon that takes up a large portion of the film, Bogarde informs his wife he’s invited the guests to stay for a late meal. When she protests, he assures her he’ll take charge of preparing a cold supper. But when they sit down, she’s managed to produce a soup to go with the ham and sparse salad Bogarde has thrown together. On a trip to London, Bogarde hooks up with an old flame (Delphine Seyrige). They eat at a restaurant with a sign reading “Have your meals here. Keep your wife as a pet.” That objectification extends to Sassard as well. Without giving any plot away, I’ll just say it’s fascinating that after she takes control of her relationships with the film’s men, she has to be stripped of that agency. Losey often lingers on images after the characters have left, underlining the beauty of a natural world tarnished by their sexual jockeying.

[mudwerks]

(via THE TITANS - Jacqueline Sassard)

[sigurism]

jacqueline sassard + alain delon faibles femmes dir: michel boisrond