The Barefoot Countess

Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the director behind classics like 'All About Eva' and 'Cleopatra', traveled to Italy in the early 1950s to record this fascinating tale of fame and lust. Ava Gardner plays Maria Vargas, a temperamental Spanish dancer who is discovered by the otherwise burnt-out film director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart). The film is structured as a mosaic of different points of view, each of which paints a picture of Maria and her enigmatic personality. Mankiewicz lets the melodrama's big emotions meet the noir's archetypes: the soulfully lost man, the unapproachable woman, the power play and the fatalistic undercurrent. Jack Cardiff's saturated colour images from San Remo and Portofino, among others, give the tragedy a sumptuous sheen.

Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Stevens
Country/year: United States, 1954
Running time: 128 min.
Formato: DCP
Language: English Dialogue
Age limit: Allowed for children over 15
Original title: The Barefoot Contessa

Part of the series: When film noir got colors
What happens to the shadows of noir films when they are suddenly surrounded by expressive colors? When pastel colors do not soften the obscure crime tales, but, on the contrary, make them sharper and more hard-hitting? This film series revolves around a special moment in postwar American film history, when film noir broke out in color.