Bedelia (Bedelia)

„The Strange Story of Bedelia“, as the film’s narrator and events‘ main witness, the painter Chaney calls it, begins in 1938 in Monte Carlo, where the title character, with the face of British actress Margaret Lockwood, is enjoying her honeymoon with her new husband. About the anxious woman, who panic-strickenly resists any depiction of her face in a photograph or a painting, we learn tiny bits of her past, which remains shrouded in mystery for us and the other story’s participants. However, with her obvious lying and hasty reactions, she does not inspire much credibility in us or in Chaney… As in the case of Laura, where the painted portrait of the protagonist also played a role, the author of the eponymous book is Vera Caspary. A film adaptation of the novel began to be prepared immediately after its publication in 1945, under the direct supervision of the writer’s husband, producer Isadore Goldsmith.

Jana Bébarová