Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Dos Passos and the Devil (tying up a loose end)


In the early 1930's Passos wrote, but didn't finish, the screenplay for the film, The Devil is a Woman.
Starring Marlene Dietrich and directed by Josef von Sternberg, it is the story of a woman who damages the men who love her.  The film was based on the French novel La Femme et le pantin by Pierre Louÿs.  I found a very good plot description here. Some of the plot elements will not be unfamiliar to readers of S., but as far as I can see, there is only a glancing resemblance.

Even more interesting is the Turner Classic Movies website states that Louis Bunuel used the same source material for his film That Obscure Object of Desire.  I am including the movie poster here as I find it relevant to the conversation. (note, the image was obtained from wikipedia.org and I believe it can be considered fair usage as the image is relevant to one of the central themes of S.)



Not sure I need to say anything more, but it would appear Dos Passos is important in any discussion of S.


(edited 7/31/14 for grammar and added tags)

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