Hecate

The story

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.

Cast & crew

Bernard GiraudeauJulien Rochelle

Lauren HuttonClotilde

Jean Bouisele consul de France

Jean-Pierre KalfonMassard

Gérard DesartheLe colonel de Watteville

Juliette Brac

Juliette BracMiss Henry

Patrick Thursfield

Patrick ThursfieldL'Anglais

Suzanne Thau

Suzanne ThauLa tenancière du bordel

Raja Reinking

Raja ReinkingLa fille du bar

Mustapha Tsouli

Mustapha TsouliIbrahim

Teco CelioLe capitaine Berta

Rose-Marie SchneiderCast