Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema

The paper deals with one of the most popular female projections or phantoms of male desire, that is the charmer who never cedes, by comparing some literary and cinematic texts. This “allumeuse” which turns men into puppets in a dynamic of impossible seduction is the protagonist of La Femme et le Pan...

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Main Author: Claudio Panella
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UNICApress 2013-08-01
Series:Between
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/914
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author Claudio Panella
author_facet Claudio Panella
author_sort Claudio Panella
collection DOAJ
description The paper deals with one of the most popular female projections or phantoms of male desire, that is the charmer who never cedes, by comparing some literary and cinematic texts. This “allumeuse” which turns men into puppets in a dynamic of impossible seduction is the protagonist of La Femme et le Pantin (1898) by Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925), whose unforgettable Conchita from Sevilla was inspired by the young Charpillon who maddened the expert seducer Casanova. Conchita’s fame was deepened by the numerous adaptations of the text for the screen, especially von Sternberg’s The Devil is a Woman (1935) starring Marlene Dietrich, Duvivier’s La Femme et le Pantin (1959) with Brigitte Bardot, and Buñuel’s free and outstanding reinterpretation in Cet obscur objet du désir (1977). In the end, the adaptation of the novel Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (1874) by Portuguese Eça de Queirós (1845-1900) which Manoel de Oliveira directed in 2009 will be evoked  to argue that the unattainable female character could represent a projection of the male protagonists’ desire and romantic idealizations as well as of their fears and bourgeois conventions.
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spelling doaj.art-2717b03df1af4453b4fe078285b35cf12023-09-03T02:08:40ZengUNICApressBetween2039-65972013-08-013510.13125/2039-6597/914669Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and CinemaClaudio Panella0Università degli Studi di TorinoThe paper deals with one of the most popular female projections or phantoms of male desire, that is the charmer who never cedes, by comparing some literary and cinematic texts. This “allumeuse” which turns men into puppets in a dynamic of impossible seduction is the protagonist of La Femme et le Pantin (1898) by Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925), whose unforgettable Conchita from Sevilla was inspired by the young Charpillon who maddened the expert seducer Casanova. Conchita’s fame was deepened by the numerous adaptations of the text for the screen, especially von Sternberg’s The Devil is a Woman (1935) starring Marlene Dietrich, Duvivier’s La Femme et le Pantin (1959) with Brigitte Bardot, and Buñuel’s free and outstanding reinterpretation in Cet obscur objet du désir (1977). In the end, the adaptation of the novel Singularidades de uma Rapariga Loura (1874) by Portuguese Eça de Queirós (1845-1900) which Manoel de Oliveira directed in 2009 will be evoked  to argue that the unattainable female character could represent a projection of the male protagonists’ desire and romantic idealizations as well as of their fears and bourgeois conventions.http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/914AllumeuseCasanovaPierre LouÿsMarlene DietrichBrigitte BardotLuis Buñuel
spellingShingle Claudio Panella
Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
Between
Allumeuse
Casanova
Pierre Louÿs
Marlene Dietrich
Brigitte Bardot
Luis Buñuel
title Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
title_full Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
title_fullStr Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
title_full_unstemmed Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
title_short Those Obscure Objects: Projections and Puppets of Desire Between Literature and Cinema
title_sort those obscure objects projections and puppets of desire between literature and cinema
topic Allumeuse
Casanova
Pierre Louÿs
Marlene Dietrich
Brigitte Bardot
Luis Buñuel
url http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/914
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