The Lady of the Camellias (1981 film)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Lady of the Camellias is a 1981 French-Italian drama directed by Mauro Bolognini and stars Isabelle Huppert and Gian Maria Volonté. It tells the true story of Alphonsine Plessis, who became a famous Parisian courtesan and inspired the novel La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, which in turn inspired many plays, operas, ballets, and films.

Plot
Alphonsine grows up poor and motherless in Paris. She arrives in the city as a seamstress and, wanting to enter high society, uses her appeal to rise socially. Illiterate but determined, she becomes the mistress of a young nobleman, then of a wealthy old aristocrat, and eventually flees to England with Count de Perregaux, who marries her there. He makes her a countess and introduces her to opium, but he finds married life isn’t for him and leaves her to live her own way. She attracts many admirers, including Franz Liszt. One of her admirers is the young writer Alexandre Dumas, fils, who hopes to help her.

Dumas, fils persuades her to stay with him in the countryside to help with tuberculosis and to curb her extravagant spending, but she longs to live freely and returns to Paris. She dies in 1847 at the age of 23, leaving behind substantial debt. Dumas, fils then turns her story into a novel, which becomes a great success.

Film details
- Release: 11 March 1981
- Running time: 115 minutes
- Language: French
- Countries: France and Italy
- Music: Ennio Morricone
- Cinematography: Ennio Guarnieri
- Editing: Nino Baragli
- Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Gian Maria Volonté
- Distributor: Gaumont Distribution