Marie Poupée - A Second Glance

So, last night I watched Marie Poupée with English subtitles. This time around I noticed it was much more sinister than at first glance; it seems that Marie is being kept prisoner in a way by her husband, and she can't make even the simplest of choices for herself - such as what she wants to wear each day, or where she goes and what she does. Her husband leaves her for long times and doesn't seem to love her like a human, instead, he is very possessive and treats her like one of his dolls, or perhaps not even as lovingly as one of his dolls. "She is trapped in a doll house!" is my first reaction upon understanding the dialogue. 
This leads to her death, ultimately. In this respect, I think Marie has a lot of similarities with Curley's Wife from John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men. They are both embodiments of femininity (black "sausage curled" ringlets, as they would say in Of Mice and Men; heavy makeup, latest fashion crazes, always looking for a man to be with, and girlish pink, pink, pink - or a sultry red, in Curley's Wife's case) and both end up dying because they're seen as inferior by men. Plus, they were both used by their husbands - Marie was used as a very pretty new ornament for her husband's chateau, and Curely's Wife was simply there to boost Curely's status on the ranch, as something to be smug about. 
These are my interpretations, so feel free to ignore them.

At the end of school I told Wendy all about Marie Poupée and she seemed quite interested. We both had a discussion and decided that it wasn't true love between Marie and her husband, as he just wanted to possess her like a doll. Though, she did say that wanting to own somebody could be seen as a form of love - I must say I only half agree with that, as if you love someone, you want them to be free and happy rather than trapped and intimidated.
It's an interesting question as to whether he loved Marie... I would speculate that he thought he did love her, as he mentions it was love at first sight (which I don't really believe in, to be honest), but in the end he just wanted her for his collection.
On the other hand, Marie was mad about him, so I do feel very sympathetic towards her. He was a huge disappointment when she was expecting her prince to come.

Also, I found some songs by France Gall (from the 60s), and 'Poupée de cire, poupée de son' and 'Les Sucettes' reminds me of Marie Poupée. The sweet, baby-pop songs and candy-pink related words in the lyrics are reminiscent of Marie, and the innocent mind of the singer in 'Les Sucettes' (which has a deeper meaning than just lollipops, I'm afraid to say) does too in particular. The way the singer was coerced into singing a song about sex without knowing its meaning, is like the innocent, childlike mindset of Marie when she enters into an unsavory world of men wanting to do damage to young girls.

Marie Poupée

Since Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal, I've been searching for another 70s movie with Jeanne Goupil in, as she's played a huge role in my fashion tastes at the moment. So I found Marie Poupée, another film by the same director. There is a dream-like, surreal atmosphere to this film, as expected of Joel Seria. Unfortunately there was no English subtitles to be found, so I had to watch it half-understanding what was going on. Mainly I focused on the clothes that have very Lolita aesthetics to them, as Marie loves dolls and emulates them in style.



From what I can gather, Marie is an orphan that lives with her grandparents. It seems she behaves a lot younger than her actual age (seventeen), possibly because of her hard past, so she adores dolls in the manner of a little girl.
One day she meets this older man in an antique store. He loves dolls, she loves dolls; it's a match made in heaven, therefore they get married. However, married life isn't at all what Marie anticipated, as he rarely gives her attention and neglects her for days at a time. He treats her like a doll and hardly even loves her as a real person, and so the marriage grows stale.
Very unhappy, Marie seeks attention from other adults (such as this older woman and a male gardener), but their affection isn't what she wanted either, as it seemed they took advantage of her sexually - especially the gardener, who raped her. As she escapes from him, she hits her head hard and becomes unconscious, alone and cold for the whole night. After that, I had no idea, as it was all a bit vague to someone just learning French like me.

Again, Jeanne Goupil has outdone herself in the role of Marie. Her sweet, traditionally feminine and mild personality comes as a shock here, as in her other films she is a devil in frilly dresses! She’s so youthful and fresh-faced in all her performances, with lovely tanned skin and dark hair - not to mention a stunning smile! Her voice is so sweet and sugared here as well. Indeed, she makes a perfect Lolita in this film!

Although Lolita fashion prides itself on being modest and innocent -  as well as far away from the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in sensibilities - this movie is full to the brim of Lolita-styled clothes and ideas about dolls, so I think it would be great to experience some Lolita filmography. Perhaps some French-speaking Lolitas would like to see this film, even just for the clothes.

Of course, my review isn't in as much detail as I would have liked, simply because I couldn't follow the dialogue. For a more in-depth review into the darkness of this film, as well as some more pictures, follow these links.