Especially if you are German, it is easy to write this film off as one of those kitsch content-free lavish films which filled German cinemas in the 1950s. Firstly, because the star is Romy Schneider, best known as star of the Sissy films broadcast almost every Christmas (about the best you can say of them). Secondly, because it's in colour. Thirdly, because the dubbing in the German version is so good you don't realise that this is originally a French film.
That would be unfair. The film's lush optics and idealised sets are not cinematic candy-floss, but absolutely necessary to set up the final tragedy-
It helps to understand the background. First, the class structure, which made Christine a completely unsuitable match, according to the standards of the time, for anyone in the upper classes. Secondly the honour code of those classes, which obliged them to choose between being murder and losing caste.
The costumes, scenery and nostalgic invocation of a bygone era are a dangerous illusion. But that's the whole point!
That would be unfair. The film's lush optics and idealised sets are not cinematic candy-floss, but absolutely necessary to set up the final tragedy-
It helps to understand the background. First, the class structure, which made Christine a completely unsuitable match, according to the standards of the time, for anyone in the upper classes. Secondly the honour code of those classes, which obliged them to choose between being murder and losing caste.
The costumes, scenery and nostalgic invocation of a bygone era are a dangerous illusion. But that's the whole point!