Hecate
5.8
“Words usually come too late”
Set amid the European community in an unspecified North African country, a colony on the verge of nationalism just before the war. And colonized is what happens to a French diplomat, Julien Rochelle, when he meets the mysterious beauty Clothilde de Watteville. Schmid 's favorite axiom, that love is projection, never had such a thorough airing. Is Clothilde really the wife of a French official now holed up in Siberia? Or is she Hecate, goddess of black magic and devourer of the Arab boys she meets far from the European quarter? Only our projections know for sure; for the rest, she is a "woman looking out into the night." Drawn from a novel by Paul Morand, who based the main character on his wife Helene, Schmid's film achieves an atmosphere of magic in which psychological credibility is not so much absent as irrelevant-a film that distances itself from the drama it invokes, perhaps as the elusive Clothilde turns her back on the madness she provokes.
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Cast
16 people
Bernard Giraudeau
Julien Rochelle
Known for
Water Drops on Burning Rocks
The Specialists
Lauren Hutton
Clotilde
Known for
American Gigolo
Once Bitten
Jean Bouise
le consul de France
Known for
The Big Blue
Nikita
Jean-Pierre Kalfon
Massard
Known for
Weekend
Confidentially Yours
Gérard Desarthe
Le colonel de Watteville
Known for
Daens
Uranus
Juliette Brac
Miss Henry
Also in
L'Homme aux yeux d'argent
Clerambard
Patrick Thursfield
L'Anglais
No other roles listed
Suzanne Thau
La tenancière du bordel
No other roles listed
Raja Reinking
La fille du bar
No other roles listed
Mustapha Tsouli
Ibrahim
No other roles listed
Teco Celio
Le capitaine Berta
Known for
Three Colors: Red
1992
Rose-Marie Schneider
Daniel Schmid Director · Pascal Jardin Writer Paul Morand Story
United States release November 15, 1983 · Produced in France, Switzerland · Production TSR, TF1 Films Production
Production
Les Productions Audiovisuelles
Production
TSR
Production
TF1 Films Production
Production
Télévision Suisse-Romande
Production
France · Switzerland
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Hécate
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
French
Release dates
Switzerland · October 22, 1982
Theatrical · German
United States · November 15, 1983
Premiere · Chicago International Film Festival
France
November 21, 1982 · Theatrical
Germany
February 9, 1983 · Premiere · Berlin International Film Festival
January 27, 1984 · Theatrical · West Germany
Italy
September 1, 1983 · Premiere · Bergamo Film Meeting
Switzerland
December 1, 1982 · Theatrical · French
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Some details come from TheTVDB.