A Woman of Paris
- Edna Purviance: Marie St. Clair
- Clarence Geldert: Marie's stepfather
- Carl Miller: Jean Millet
- Lydia Knott: Jeans mother
- Charles French: Jeans father
- Adolphe Menjou: Pierre Revel
- Betty Morrissey: Fifi
- Malvina Polo: Paulette
- Charles Chaplin: Porter
The nights of a beautiful woman ( German Alternative title: A woman in Paris) is an American film directed by Charles Chaplin from 1923.
Action
Marie St. Clair is a young woman who lives in a French provincial town. She loves Jean Millet, who helps her get away from her authoritarian father. When she comes back home, the father denied her access. Marie then attempts to obtain accommodation at Jean and his parents, but also their parents Jeans deny this. The young couple decides to escape the village and the opposition of the parents and build a life together in Paris. Marie awaits her lover at night at the train station to take the night train to Paris. But the lover does not appear, since his father died suddenly. Marie travels to Paris alone.
In Paris, Marie leads after one year a carefree life that is her finances from her rich friend Pierre Revel. Even Jean finally manages alone to Paris. He is a painter and lives as artists in the Latin Quarter. Jean continues to take care of his widowed mother. By chance, Marie and Jean see again. The love kindled anew. Jean Marie makes a marriage proposal. However, compared to his mother, he denies this project and Marie finds out about it. She has him away. Jean is bitterly grieved, Marie tries to convince you of the sincerity of his feelings for her, but not even receive him. Jean takes her own life and his mother, Marie are to blame. She decides to shoot Marie. However, when she realizes what a great sadness in Marie is located, it can from it and reconciles with her. Marie from now cares for mother jeans.
They both start a new life and take care of orphans in the rural province. One day, Pierre Revel with a friend in the car passes by this village, asks his friend Pierre, what was become of Marie St. Clair. Pierre shrugs, while a hay wagon passes with Marie and an orphan to the car in the opposite direction.
Background
The nights of a beautiful woman is the first film by Charles Chaplin for the 1919 he founded together with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford Studio United Artists. The shooting of this film started on November 22 in 1922 and went on for seven months out. The film was cut by Chaplin's dramaturgical assistant Monta Bell and Chaplin himself and on 29 September 1923, the production was completed. The world premiere took place on October 1, 1923 at the Criterion Theatre in Hollywood instead.
Chaplin had hired for this production four assistants. A. Edward Sutherland worked as an assistant director, Monta Bell as dramaturgical assistant and editor. For the research of the French realistic scenery he had Jean de Limur d' Abbadie d' Arrast and Harry engaged. All four assistants were film directors themselves later.
The film was enthusiastically received by critics after its premiere in Hollywood and the New York premiere shortly afterwards, but then fell by the audiences. The audience had a comedic film with Charlie Chaplin expected of him and no melodrama where Chaplin appears only in a short sequence at the beginning of the film. In Europe, the film was not accepted by the public and incurred losses at the box office. Chaplin took the film disappointed from the rental and forbade any performance until 1976. Only with a composed by Chaplin music on a soundtrack of the film was shown again.
Reviews
" Sensitive staged melodrama; because of its unusual time for the emergence of subtle imagery and the restrained game of the performers still a remarkable psychological drama. "