Three excellent actresses starred in this film, but it is more radio play than cinema. "Le Jupon Rouge" is not a bad movie, but it is just a shadow of what it might have been. The story is too sketchy to really engage the viewer. The characters are not developed enough in the course of the action for us really to care about them.
The story hinges on the inner brittle fragility of an outwardly tough Holocaust survivor (Alida Valli). Her character is a political writer and activist, while Marie-Christine Barrault portrays her long-time secretary and aide.
Their story had real potential for drama and emotion. But most of the drama played out off screen, with the characters talking about what was happening, or had just happened, or had happened in the past, rather than depicting any of it happen. Most of the emotion was off camera, too, with only an episodic sampling shown on the screen.
The director, who also co-wrote and produced, needed help and advice from someone who better understood cinema. She had assembled a fine cast. She had a good eye for dark low-key settings and locations. But she did not seem to grasp that a story on the screen must be shown, not just told, and that dialog must be part of action and emotions, not merely talk about action and emotions.
"Le Jupon Rouge" is disappointing -- especially because the wonderful Marie-Christine Barrault has made so few movies (she chose family life over stardom). She starred in "Cousin Cousine," one of my favorite romantic comedies (it's better than the American version, "Cousins"), but "Cousin Cousine," too, like "Le Jupon Rouge," is not available on DVD, only VHS. She is at her most radiant in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories;" indeed she is the main reason to watch that film.
