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Baxter, Vera Baxter is a 1977 French drama film written and directed by Marguerite Duras, based on her then-unpublished novel Vera Baxter ou les Plages de l'Atlantique.
| Baxter, Vera Baxter | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Marguerite Duras |
| Written by | Marguerite Duras |
| Produced by | |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Sacha Vierny |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Carlos d'Alessio |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | MK2 Diffusion |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Synopsis
editThe film opens with Vera Baxter posing. In the next scene we are inside the bar of a hotel and hear the clerk respond to an inquiring woman about the luxurious seaside house and Vera Baxter. There's also a man named Cayre present, who has failed to get in touch with Vera Baxter. We see Vera again in a grande rental villa. She receives two visitors, and we hear her story about her marriage from these conversations.
Cast
edit- Delphine Seyrig as the unknown woman
- Noëlle Châtelet as Monique Combès
- Nathalie Nell as Jean's mistress
- Claude Aufort as the barman
- Claudine Gabay as Vera Baxter
- Gérard Depardieu as Michel Cayre
Themes and interpretations
editThe Criterion Collection described Baxter, Vera Baxter as a "hypnotically unsettling journey into one woman's existential emptiness. Ensconced in a sprawling rental villa, the world-weary Vera Baxter ... receives visits from two women, including a mysterious stranger ... to whom she recounts a shocking story about her marriage, the way she lives, and the reasons for her malaise."[1] Ivone Margulies, also writing for The Criterion Collection, viewed the film as "a harsh take on bourgeois conformity and prostitution, or, in [Duras's] words, 'an infernal circuit that shuttles her from the love of her children to her conjugal duties.'"[2]
Home media
editBaxter, Vera Baxter was released by The Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD on 28 February 2023 as part of the Two Films by Marguerite Duras box set along with India Song (1975).[3]
References
edit- ^ "Baxter, Vera Baxter". The Criterion Collection.
- ^ Margulies, Ivone (28 February 2023). "India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter: In the Thrall of Duras". The Criterion Collection.
- ^ "Two Films by Marguerite Duras". The Criterion Collection. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
External links
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