The Whirlpool of Fate

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The Whirlpool of Fate (La Fille de l’eau) is a 1925 French silent drama directed by Jean Renoir and starring Catherine Hessling. The film runs 71 minutes and was produced by Les Films Jean Renoir. It is silent with French intertitles. Writers: Pierre Lestringuez. Cinematography by Jean Bachelet and Alphonse Gibory. Release date: March 20, 1925.

French copies of the film have been lost, but English copies still exist with complete English intertitles. The intertitles have been translated back into French so viewers in France can enjoy the film as closely as possible to its original screening.

Plot
Set in the late 19th century along canals and barges, the story opens on a barge. The heroine’s brutal father, a pole man, is knocked overboard and drowns. The death is accidental, and the body is recovered the next morning after a rescue attempt. Now poor, the heroine makes a living by stealing. She teams up with a rogue, but he is more of a petty criminal than she is. A case of mistaken identity leads to her being accused of setting fire to a peasant’s haystack. The farmer alerts his neighbors, a water wagon arrives to help, but the fire cannot be put out. The villagers blame her and torch her gypsy wagon. They dance around the burning wagon in a macabre scene, not knowing if someone is inside.