Madwoman of Chaillot | 
| Director: Bryan Forbes
Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain
Studio: Warner Home Video
Buy Used: $22.90
New (3) Used (15) Collectible (1) from $22.90
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 3513
Format: Color, Hifi Sound, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 132 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 630273276X
UPC: 085391105336
EAN: 9786302732764
ASIN: 630273276X
Release Date: February 21, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: VHS: Ex-Rental. BOX: Original Box intact, looks very nice, VERY GOOD. ORIGINAL FACTORY RELEASE. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Ships w/ Delivery Confirmation ~ Buy from an established seller - we have been selling on Amazon for 8 years ~ Please double check your address when ordering :>
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Description
Parable about a woman who refuses to believe the world is no longer beautiful.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 DO YOU MISS A COLD WHEN IT IS GONE? July 12, 2004
Judith D. Crocker (Oregon City, Oregon United States)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
I love this film! THE MAD WOMAN OF CHAILLOT, is an interesting satire, based on Jean Giraudoux's famous play. Katharine Hepburn, heads up this stellar, all-star cast, as the French Countess Aurelia, immersed in her own little world, and deemed eccentric, perhaps even mad, by Parisian society. When Aurelia "wakes up" to the "real world" and realizes how corrupt it has become, she swings into action! A wonderful mock trial is held, to judge and condemn the evil-doers, sensationally presented by Danny Kaye. The evil ones, consisting of a clergyman, a general, a chairman, a prospector, a commissar, and a broker, are summoned to Aurelia's home, and quickly exterminated. She assures her friends, they will not be missed; "Do you miss a cold when it is gone?"
This film is in my library, because it was one of the first films, done by my favorite actor, Richard Chamberlain. Bryan Forbes, who directed this masterpiece, has a wonderful eye for detail. His sharp eye, focused on Richard Chamberlain, casting him as Roderick, Aurelia's young French lover. Chamberlain was powerful, considering it was one of his first films, and he was playing against actors, known for strong stage presence. He not only held his own, but actually stole the scenes, with his fine acting, and exceptional physical beauty, a "detail", that did not go unnoticed, by the trained eye of director, Bryan Forbes. Forbes found Richard Chamberlain, a delight to direct, and later cast him as Prince Charming, in his wonderful movie, THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE, remarking on his devastating, good looks, and humility.
If you enjoy satire, lovely music, (The Lonely Ones), great acting, and have an appreciation for detail, then this film is for you. In it's day, this film was not well received; but I suspect it is because satire, often flies over the head, of the average viewer. I believe this film was actually, "ahead of it's time," and resonates more profoundly today, with corporate greed, failed cultural institutions, political corruption, and the criminal wasting of our natural resources. Maybe, there will be another woman...just mad enough...to step up to the plate and deliver a blow to the present INSANITY!
Terrific, timely, terrifying! August 26, 2003
R.L. Holly (Austin, TX USA)
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
"The Madwoman of Chaillot," based on a 1940s play by Jean Giraudoux, is one of those underappreciated treasures that rewards careful and repeated viewings. Like another parable/allegorical fairytale from Sixties filmmaking, "King of Hearts" (also set in France), it is an easy movie to dismiss as pretentious or longwinded. But this is to judge on surface appearances or to hold the film to a standard that it does not seek to attain. This work is a morality play, meant to instruct and illuminate; it is not a typical linear, real-world drama -- although the interweaving of the real world of contemporary Paris with the fantasy world inhabited by the Countess (Katharine Hepburn, who is brilliant as usual) and her coterie of elegant female eccentrics gives the movie much of its surface charm. Hepburn's Countess is not so much insane as preferring to live in an imaginary world of rosy nostalgia and wishful thinking. She and her friends fundamentally realize the difference between invention and fact but choose to generally ignore it. Let me be the first reviewer here to suggest that the curious use of three aged women to represent the forces of justice at work in this dual world is a deliberate hearkening to the Weird Sisters of "Macbeth", or the Furies of Greek tragedy, or even the Fates themselves. Similarly, the huddled poor of the Parisian streets and the menial laborers mostly have no names because they represent archetypes, perhaps -- a Greek chorus full of accusations for their tormentors. They contrast starkly with the smooth amorality of the movie's duplicitous villains -- an oil tycoon, a clergyman, a general, a politician, a business consultant, and others -- played to icy perfection and with just the right amount of absurd black humor by Pleasance, Brynner, Gavin, and their partners. Richard Chamberlain, playing an idealistic activist, adds a dose of romanticism when he leaves the world of the "faceless pimps" (in the damning words of Danny Kaye's relentless Ragpicker) and journeys for the love of Irma, a poor waitress, into the shadow world of the Countess of Chaillot -- although in doing so, he must destroy Hepburn's illusions forever, prompting her to take a terrible vengeance on the "greedy, stupid, lost" men who have caused the world to "not be happy." The climactic "trial" sequence, where the Ragpicker must play the devil's advocate on behalf of the collective monied classes, placed in the docket for crimes against humanity, is a masterful performance by Kaye, playing a non-clown role for once (who ever suspected he had it in him?). With honeyed words, he first seduces his "judges" into falling for his deceits; then, when his lies are exposed for the pretense they are, he turns into a raging, bellowing monster of hatred, openly proclaiming his naked desire for money and power merely to make war and destroy what's left of the earth. Finally the mask has slipped; the court renders its verdict; and Hepburn's meting out of justice is as dreadful as any judgment of Nemesis. Which is all very ponderous and heavy, but you can really take this film two ways -- whimsical fantasy entertainment or something much deeper and disturbing. The choice rests with the viewer, much as it lies with the characters in the movie to choose which path they wish to pursue. "The Madwoman of Chaillot" may have been made over 30 years ago but the issues it raises and the attitudes it depicts are still very much with us today, and only someone as asleep and dreaming as the Countess wouldn't realize it.
Hepburn at Her Finest May 1, 2001
Edward Scott Haas (USA)
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
O.K., I admit it. I'm the type who would watch Katherine Hepburn in literally ANY role and find something good about it. There are plenty of flawed or mediocre works I have sat through just for her. But the fact is that "Madwoman .." is a truly great film both as a comedy and a social critique. A consortium of evil conspirators representing most of the world's repressive idelogies (Communism, religious fundamentalism, corpoate greed, rigid middle class conformism and military war-mongering)try to destroy the "decadent" city of Paris (symbol of liberty, beauty and humanism). Kate, the city's defender, is a highly eccentric Countess who may or may not have some kind of semi-magical powers and who may or may not be immortal. To make a long story short, the bad guys make her mad and end up buried alive (when asked if they will be missed she replies "Do you miss a cold when it is gone?" Good answer!). Don't mess with Kate!
A Marvelous Parable July 3, 1999
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
A wonderful fable I happened to stumble across. The inimitable Katharine Hepburn as the title character conspires with other eccentrics to save Paris. Warm, funny, delightfully non-sequitur and deeply poignant, this film has messages about love, greed, happiness, fear, hope, dreams. . .life. Excellent performances by all, including some wonderful dramatic acting by Danny Kaye. I highly recommend this movie.
Not the usual Bryan Forbes November 8, 2000
gobirds2 (New England)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is not your usual narrative. The vestiges of Jean Giraudoux's trifling and engagingly whimsical play can still be noticed in Edward Anhalt's interesting modernization of his work. Bryan Forbes ("King Rat") directed this unusual movie. The cast includes Katharine Hepburn (an extremely sane madwoman), Margaret Leighton, Edith Evans, Giulietta Masina, Charles Boyer, Yul Brynner, Donald Pleasence, Danny Kaye, John Gavin, Nanette Newman, Oscar Homolka, Claude Dauphin, Richard Chamberlain, Paul Henreid, and Fernand Gravet. There is some nice photography along the way. Not for all tastes.
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