The Banned Woman

La Femme défendue describes an adulterous relationship with its assorted hesitations, pleasures and hesitations. The film is shot entirely with a subjective camera and adopts the point of view of the married man. "Philippe had to wheedle out the caresses of a lover's gaze" (Isabelle Carré). François does not appear on screen, he is only a voice-off on a black background. "You don't expect Muriel to react and to steel herself. At the beginning she is naïve and pure, then she loses her illusions and becomes a woman. The way we worked, with long sequence shots, gave me the impression of working in the theatre. We rehearsed for a month before the shoot and for the static scenes Harel used a one-way mirror so that I could deliver my lines to someone" (Isabelle Carré).